Fall Through
by JennMel
Summary: Humans are tricky creatures, and Malcolm is no different. They go through pain and hurt, only surviving with the hope that they will come out the other side. Sometimes, that's not as easy as it sounds. Welcome to the living hell.
1. From Light to Dark

Authors Notes: Hi! This is my first Enterprise story, so I'd appreciate feedback. I've always thought there should be something else, and this is the result of my musings. Hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the characters that are obviously not from the show.

Fall Through

Chapter 1: From Light to Dark

Malcolm awoke to frantic sirens and alarms drilling into his head, followed shortly by a ship-wide communication from the bridge: _Tactical Alert. All personnel report to stations._

"Damn." Malcolm swung out of bed and threw on a Starfleet issue t-shirt and black trousers. He pulled on his boots and ran out the door from his quarters to the turbolift. He was just about to press the button for the bridge, when his communicator bleeped, "Hutton to Lieutenant Reed. Sir, we need you in the Armoury! The alien vessel is targeting the Armoury directly and cannons are already down!"

Weighing up his options, Malcolm simultaneously pressed the button for the Armoury and replied, "On my way." He then contacted his superiors, "Reed to the bridge. Sir, I'm needed in the Armoury-"

"Fine Lieu…ant. Com…ca…ons are goi…dow… The dec…ks are being seal…d off…some…ow."

"Bloody hell." Malcolm cursed. He wished he was up on the Bridge, knowing what was going on, but the aliens had attacked when most of the senior personnel were in bed. Inconsiderate of them, really.

As soon as Reed burst into the Armoury, however, he changed his mind about being on the Bridge. It was worse than Engineering on a bad day. Fires were blazing everywhere and crewmen were multi-tasking like there was no tomorrow. _There might not be._ Malcolm reminded himself.

Reed was about to attempt to get the cannons back on line when his world exploded in white.

* * *

Malcolm twisted and tentatively opened his eyes, "Damn." He muttered. Apparently Orions had advanced in their offensive technology. He scanned the cage. Crewman Rita Hutton was curled up next to him, but they were the only ones.

She twisted to look at him, "Sir, you're awake!"

"What happened, besides the obvious?"

"Everyone in the armoury was taken. We're spread out between cages, but no one's been auctioned off yet. The Enterprise got our people out of here before, right sir? They can do it again?"

Malcolm smiled reassuringly, hiding his doubt, _Only if they weren't too beaten up. _"From what I read of the report, Hutton, humans weren't too popular last time, we should be okay."

"Yes sir."

"This cage looks acceptable." Their conversation was interrupted by a violently, blood red alien, with deep purple eyes. It reminded Malcolm of a Suliban, except the skin was smooth. It also had hair; coarse strands of blonde spiked in all directions. It was accompanied by an Orion.

"How'll you be payin'"

"The usual way." The voice was slick, the kind that made a person's skin crawl. "However, I only want one human. We find them far too spirited to be of much use to us."

"Human?"

The red creature sighed impatiently, "Those ones. I'll have the male; the majority of my clientele want their slaves for the mines."

Malcolm tensed; he was being sold. An Orion reached into their cage and forcefully pulled out Hutton. She resisted, only to be rewarded with a sharp shock for her efforts. The crimson hand of the alien reached into a pocket of its clothes and produced some sort of gun. He then proceeded to stun each occupant of the cage; painfully.

* * *

It was cold. Very cold. Malcolm shivered; his bare skin pressed against the hard metal floor. Gasping, he sat up, far too fast. A hand pressed firmly on his chest, forcing him back down. Stars danced across his vision as he fought back nausea. "Calm down." The voice was soft and soothing, "Those guns always leave you disorientated for a while."

Blurrily, Malcolm regarded the owner of the voice. She was a human woman, with lank blonde hair. She was covered in black grime, and wore simple brown clothes, torn in many places. There were no shoes on her feet. She smiled, "Nice to see you awake. I'm Katrina. Who're you?"

"Lieutenant-" Malcolm began, only to be interrupted by Katrina.

"No titles, we are who we are here, nothing fancy. You must be a Fall Through," She smiled calmly, "Welcome to the living hell my friend. The joy that is being slaves in a Covenant mine."

Malcolm's mind tried to process what she had said, but failed as another shiver ran through his body; all he was wearing was a pair of torn brown linen trousers, presumably previously owned by another miner, from the amount of black smudges covering the garment. Katrina seemed to notice this, and dug around in the corner where they were sitting. She handed him a t-shirt and threw a rag of a blanket over to him. She shrugged, "We're kinda limited in our resources."

"Thanks. I'm Malcolm. What's a Fall Through? And Covenant?"

"You were bought by a Covenant slave trader on the Other Side. A Fall Through is someone who was born on the other side of the wormhole and is now a slave." Katrina stated.

Malcolm blinked, "Excuse me? _Wormhole_?"

Katrina shrugged, "Never seen it myself. My Mum was pregnant when she fell through. Then again, no one sees it. If you're bought by a trader, you're unconscious for the whole month's processing."

"I've been unconscious a _month_?"

"Yep. Okay, ground rules Malcolm. Welcome to the mines. We mine Oribium, used for ships and high speed space travel. Oribium is explosive in its unrefined state. We are slaves for the Covenant of Planets, the bunch of bastards who rule this galaxy. There ain't no getting back through the wormhole, only Pensari can traverse it without falling unconscious and suffering brain damage; you've probably met one, red, with a temper to match. Down here, we obey the foremen; the guys with the shockers. Other than that, don't piss off anyone and you won't get killed. Food is distributed once every three days, water once a day. Got all that?"

"I think so. Are we speaking English?"

"Nope. We're speaking Common. Each slave has a chip implanted, for shocking and for translating. Besides, you and I are the only humans here, not many Fall Through, mainly because they're smart enough not to cross Orions."

"Why doesn't anyone know about the wormhole?"

"They do. In all databases, it's marked as a no-go area on pain of death. Unfortunately, it doesn't apply for Orions; they get too much money out of it in return for being left alone. For everyone else, it's the classic way of dealing with things; out of sight out of mind and all."

A klaxon sounded and Katrina rose to her feet. "Third Shift starts." She attempted to offer Malcolm some comfort, "Maybe it'll change one day." She offered Malcolm a hand, and led him out the door of the compound that was the Third Shift compound.

He tried not to let it, but a veil of despair had settled on Malcolm. If Starfleet didn't actually know about the wormhole, the chances of him ever getting home were slim.

* * *

"Yes Admiral, I understand. Archer out." Captain Jonathan Archer groaned, and pressed his fingertips onto his eyelids in the hope of his problems magically sorting themselves out. He dreaded the conversation he was going to now have to have with his crew. He knew that he would get no verbal objections from most of the crew, not that they wouldn't think them, and he knew T'pol would go along with the decision Starfleet had made, but Trip? That little discussion he was _not_ looking forward to.

Archer moved from his Ready Room to the Bridge, "Travis, set a course for Earth."

"Sir?" Travis questioned as everyone on the Bridge looked over to their Captain.

"We're being recalled."

* * *

"Enter." Archer was sitting looking out of the window as the stars danced past the window like fireflies.

Trip stormed in, apparently having not waited for his shift to finish before voicing his objections, "Cap'n, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Following orders Trip," Archer calmly replied, rising to face his friend, "I don't like it any more than you, but it's been three months now. The chances that we're going to find Malcolm now are next to nothing. We're just lucky we got the other crewmen back."

"But we know he's still alive! It's not like I'm living on a lie here Jon, he _is_ alive!"

"Trip, we haven't found one trace of him since we began our search. T'pol even thinks Hutton might have been hallucinating about that red alien she keeps insisting took him; there's no record of any race like it. As far as Starfleet is now concerned, we should get back to exploring; Lieutenant Malcolm Reed is officially MIA, presumed dead. We're to have a memorial service on return to Earth."

"But-"

"No buts _Commander_," Archer emphasized his friend's rank, "We have to move on."

Trip strode forwards until his nose almost touched Archer's. Through clenched teeth, he hissed, "If it were you _Captain_, we wouldn't give up, especially Malcolm." He then turned and stormed out.

Archer sighed and sat down at his desk, guilt roiling in the pit of his stomach. He picked up a pen, and let it hover over the document. After what seemed like an age, Captain Archer scrawled his signature.

Lieutenant Reed was no longer alive, but Malcolm lived on.

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: How do you think I did? I will continue this story if I get enough feedback, so please let me know you what you think!


	2. A Fool's Hope

Author Notes: Hello again! Thanks for all your reviews - I'm so glad you like it! Just so you don't get misled, this is not going to turn into a romance, just a friendship.

Chapter 2: A Fool's Hope

The compound was silent as every slave wolfed down their food as fast as was physically possible. Tucked away in their little corner, away from the other alien slaves, and far away from the five Klingons who inhabited the area nearest the door, Malcolm and Katrina huddled, finishing off the processed glop that was meant to sustain them. It was night on the moon that they mined, and the temperature had dropped considerably. Malcolm's breath rose in frosty clouds as he tried to keep warm. It had been four months since he had awoken on Enterprise to the sound of alarms; four months of hell. If he wasn't keeping himself awake and avoiding the foremen, he was avoiding the other slaves and keeping himself and Katrina away from everyone. Humans were regarded as a weaker, minority race, and as such, easy to bully.

Katrina put her bowl down, and curled up next to Malcolm, "You're thinking again. I've told you it's not good for you. Brooding on the past will do you no good."

"I can't help it. I refuse to accept that this will be my life until I die."

"It's been too long Mal. No one's coming."

"I can't give up," Malcolm turned his crystalline blue eyes to Katrina, "If I do, I won't last here much longer."

Katrina leaned her head on his shoulder, "Hope is a shred that lives in the darkness, sparked only when all reason is gone."

"What?"

"My Mum used to say it to me when I was little. A fool's hope is better than none at all I suppose." She smiled, and linked her arm into his to get warmer, "You never know, you're foolish mind might get us out one day."

Malcolm smiled in return, "Get some sleep, I'll take first watch."

* * *

"Move!" The Andorian woman in front of Malcolm was shocked into moving again, albeit slowly. While he had been on watch, he had over heard some bug-like aliens that Katrina had called the Ri'kya, say that they didn't think she would last another shift. They moved single file, further down into the mines, to a recently dug tunnel where a new vein of Oribium had been discovered. Malcolm's feet were already aching; the soles had been shredded on his first day, and now each time he walked over the jagged rock of the mine floor, old cuts reopened. Tools were handed out, and the slaves set to work. Soon, clouds of black dust and chippings came away from the rock as their primitive tools connected with resounding echoes. Katrina had explained to him that by giving the slaves less effective tools, there was less chance of rebellion.

Malcolm coughed harshly as the coarse particles of rock stuck in his throat. The Klingon next to him shook his head like a dog, showering him with a cloud of the horrible stuff, but Malcolm knew better than to say anything.

The work continued on as it usually did for many hours, until Katrina froze. Worried for his friend, Malcolm whispered, "What is it? You don't want to get shocked." When her eyes met his, a horrible feeling settled in his stomach; she looked petrified, an emotion she had never displayed before.

"Listen."

Malcolm frowned, only hearing the chinks as metal hit stone. Then a cracking sound reached his ears, getting louder. Katrina opened her mouth, and screamed, "Cave-in!"

Immediately, tools were downed, as the slaves all clamoured for the entrance. Malcolm and Katrina were near where the tunnel was being dug further into the rock, and he knew they'd never make it. He grabbed Katrina's arm, and yanked her back, just as the roof began to collapse. As they fell back, they hit the Andorian woman, and toppled away from the falling rock, which crushed many of the slaves who had been working near them. As the dust cleared, Malcolm could see that he and Katrina were well and truly trapped. A mauled foot stuck out from the rubble.

Malcolm scrambled over the fallen rock to get to Katrina, who groaned, "Are you okay Mal?"

"Me? You're the one who looks half dead."

"Thanks, you really know how to flatter a girl. You don't look too hot yourself." She gestured towards Malcolm's arm, which had a huge gash running down it, bleeding profusely. Katrina sat up shakily, "Woah. You sure the cave-in's stopped? Because the world is still moving." She half joked, clutching her head.

"Lie still. I'm going to try and dig us out." A coughing interrupted him. Moving away from his friend, Malcolm tentatively moved over to the body, praying that it wasn't a pissed off Klingon. Two antennae came into view in the half light created by the dying lamp. Reaching out, "Are you okay?"

His hand was knocked weakly away, "Don't touch me pink skin!"

Malcolm raised an eyebrow, "I asked you a question. If you are well enough, I need you to help me dig."

Katrina snorted as she scrambled shakily to her feet, "She wouldn't help even if she could. If only to spite us."

Malcolm glared at her as the Andorian sank into another coughing fit, "She's injured."

"So? When are you going to learn Mal? In this galaxy, your only friends are your own race." She began to shift rock, "C'mon, help me."

* * *

Malcolm and Katrina had been digging for what seemed like days, but what wasn't yet an hour. Their hands were bloody and torn as they snagged against the rocks they shifted, and their breathing became more and more laboured as they fought for oxygen. According to Katrina, it was protocol to dig for two hours after a cave-in, in case any slaves could be salvaged. After that, they would be dead.

Malcolm tugged on a particularly stubborn rock, and fell back hard as it came free, landing on his already painful arm. He was about to select another rock, when the Andorian began making choking noises, convulsing grotesquely. Her originally blue skin was turning white. Suddenly, the convulses stopped. Malcolm searched for a pulse, but found none. "Good." He heard Katrina mutter, "Less air being used up."

"Not really."

"Oh Malcolm-"

"I don't mean that. She didn't just die suddenly, she was our canary."

"Excuse me?"

"On Earth, miners used to use a bird called a canary while they worked. If the bird died, it indicated the presence of gas. The Andorian had a poorer health, so was first to succumb. We'll be next if we don't get out."

"Perfect." Katrina spat.

* * *

Katrina swayed sideways, stars dancing on her eyes, and she fainted. "Shit." Malcolm cursed. He tore away at the rock, and then froze. A crumbling sound could be heard, and then light filtered in at the top of the rock pile.

A voice called in, "Survivors?"

"Two!" Malcolm yelled back.

The hole was quickly widened, and Malcolm hurriedly shoved Katrina out, following after. One of the Ri'kya asked, "You sure she ain't dead?"

In answer to its question, Katrina coughed, and dizzily sat up when she saw she was surrounded. A foreman yelled, "Third Shift over!" just as the klaxon sounded.

Everyone traipsed back to the compound, Malcolm steadying Katrina. He made a note to avoid the now four Klingons, who all looked at the two of them as if they had murdered their friend.

Only an hour passed, before three burly foremen entered the compound. "Apparently, one of you little shits called the cave-in. As you know, it is forbidden for any slaves to call orders. Who did it?"

Malcolm tensed as he saw one of the Klingons break into a grin. He pointed at the two humans. "Shit," Malcolm muttered. He knew any punishment the foremen dealt out would likely kill Katrina in the state she was in. Steeling himself, he stood up and called out as defiantly as he could, "Yeah, I called the cave-in."

Below him, he heard Katrina attempt to protest, but he had already walked towards the foremen. The intimidating creatures placed metal restraints around his wrists, and led him out of the compound. After a while of walking upwards, Malcolm was led to a well lit room, where a revolting Pensari alien was standing. Malcolm was kicked to his knees. One of the foremen spoke, "This is the one, sir. Troublemaker by the look of 'im and all. Refused to call me sir back in Compound Eight"

"Really?" The Pensari moved forwards and cupped Malcolm's chin in his hand, forcing him to meet the unnatural purple eyes, "Well, we can't have that." He considered Malcolm for a moment, and then, "Thirty lashes for calling orders, five lashes for showing no respect to authority. Issue the punishment as quickly as possible and return to your work."

"Yes sir." The foremen physically dragged Malcolm out of the room and into another, dark room. His restraints were removed, and he was then strung up by his wrists so that his toes just touched the ground. His arm screamed in protest as the gash reopened.

The punishment was almost unbearable. Each time the leather struck his back, he thought he would pass out. By the time the lashing was over, Malcolm was slumped forwards, only being held up by his wrists. The rope was removed from the groves it had dug into his wrists, and two of the foreman dragged the half conscious man back to the compound.

Malcolm hit the metal floor with a thud. He was then immediately moving again, being dragged over to the corner where he and Katrina had made their home. "Malcolm?" Her voice filtered through the ringing in his ears, "Malcolm, open your eyes, look at me."

Weakly, Malcolm complied. She sighed, "You are truly a fool, I've only known you four months and still you do something like this for me." She took a canister of water and some relatively clean cloth. She then poured it over the lacerations that riddled Malcolm's back, arm and wrists, washing the dirt and blood away. Finally, Katrina bound the wounds with the cloth, "I've cleaned you up as best as possible, but there will be extensive scarring. Here, drink this, and sleep." She handed him the water, allowing him to gulp the remainder down.

"Thanks." Malcolm murmured as he curled up to try and rest.

Katrina sighed. She had met a few humans when she had served in the same household as her mother before moving into the mines, but this one was the strangest. Katrina curled up next to him, keeping alert for danger. For the first time, a spark of hope burned within her. Maybe this human would make things change.

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: Review! Please! And I may update soon!


	3. Fresh Blood

Author Notes: Thank you so much for the reviews. Unfortunately, you're going to have to wait for the next chapter to find out what the Enterprise lot are up to. In the meantime, enjoy!

Chapter 3: Fresh Blood

Malcolm tensed as the doors of the compound were pulled open without the usual accompanying klaxon. It still made him jumpy, even after a week. He gently shook Katrina awake, who slurred, "What's goin' on?"

"I don't know."

Katrina pulled herself up into a sitting position, carefully avoiding Malcolm's back. She tilted her head, frowning, and then, "New slaves. They're replacing the ones that got crushed last week. I wonder what species they've bought."

"Please don't term it like that."

"What? Bought? The universe hates us Malcolm, deal with it."

"Thanks for that."

"Stand away scum!" A foreman yelled out, kicking a little slimy alien out of his way. The foremen dragged in new slaves, and unceremoniously dumped them in a pile in the centre of the compound.

As soon as the last slave was deposited and the foremen had locked the compound doors, slaves started to move forwards, dragging away any newcomer that was of their race. Katrina curled back up, "No humans."

"What will happen to those that don't have a race here?"

"Starve probably." Katrina yawned casually.

"You didn't." Malcolm pointed out.

"Robert died two weeks before you came. I also have sharp teeth." Katrina said nonchalantly.

Malcolm smirked and turned his attention back to the depleting pile of unconscious slaves. As a Ri'kya dragged off their new addition, one body was left in the centre. It was quite small, so Malcolm presumed it to be a child, about twelve. It looked like a human, but Katrina had said that there definitely weren't any. He frowned, "That one looks human."

Katrina groaned exasperatedly and sat back up. Only half paying attention, "Nope; Vulcan kid."

"I never thought I'd say this, but we have to help him. He's only a child."

"So? He ain't human."

"But he's Vulcan, who are a sight more friendly than most of the races here."

"Mal, I do not want to share my food with a happy little elf. You are far too helpful for your own good."

"Look, if it was an adult, I might agree with you; they can fight. But this kid will die within the week."

"It's not our problem. If we take it in, we'll be seen as weaker than we already are. We stick to our species here, Malcolm; you should know that by now."

"I don't give a damn as to what unwritten rules state what I can or cannot do; I get enough of that from the foremen."

"You're too soft."

Malcolm snorted, "My old colleagues would disagree with you there. They were of the opinion that I was uptight and paranoid."

"God, if you're a tougher human from Earth, I'd hate to meet a soft one." She sighed, "Fine then, get the Vulcan, but on your head be it."

No needing to be told twice, Malcolm got up; all eyes following him as he grabbed the wrists of the child and dragged him slowly back to their corner, trying to ignore the stabbing pains that ran up his arm. After a minute of staring, the other slaves seemed to lose interest, and went back to what they had been doing. "When will he wake up?"

"Depends on the species. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to sleep. Wake me when it comes round." Katrina curled back up, wriggled about a bit to get comfortable and finally settled into a steady breathing pattern.

* * *

A barely audible groan pricked the edges of Malcolm's hearing. He turned to watch the small Vulcan stir and come round. He shook Katrina awake, "Piss off!"

Malcolm smirked evilly, "You did say you wanted to be woken."

"Yeah, well I retract that statement."

Their friendly banter was interrupted by an accusing voice, "Who are _you_?"

Katrina raised an eyebrow, "See? Vulcan's are bloody impolite. No 'Thank you for saving me from the nasty Klingons' or 'I am in your debt'. Hell, even a simple 'cheers' would have sufficed." The Vulcan scowled, making her look mildly surprised, "I've never seen a Vulcan exhibit so much emotion."

"I am half Vulcan, my mother was a human. Where is this?"

"We're in Oribium mines, and we're the slaves." Malcolm supplied, deciding not to comment on the boy's lineage.

"Where?"

"How the hell should we know? We were just as out of it as you when we were brought here." Katrina leaned against the wall, enjoying the boy's reaction.

"Never mind, Father will find me."

Katrina let out a sharp bark of laughter, "Come back to reality kid. I've been here since I was your age when my dumb master decided to gamble on the Trimoon Races; no one's come for me. Mal's been here just gone four months, and he's still here too. The sooner you realise this, the better for all of us."

"I thought humans were optimistic and foolhardy."

Malcolm gave the boy a half smile, "Only the ones who ignore the universe's true colours."

"What's your name kid? I can hardly call you Elf for the rest of your life."

"Soreq, and you?" The klaxon went off.

"I'm Katrina, he's Malcolm. And now it's time for the fun to begin."

* * *

"Food!" Five foremen dumped a vat of the disgusting oatmeal-like substance; the water was distributed when the slaves were in the mines. Soreq stood and picked up the bowl Katrina had given him. The two humans watched as their new companion made his way across the compound. Malcolm stood up slowly; his energy already ebbed to the point where most free people would collapse. He frowned as he saw a commotion near the food, not surprised when he saw it involved the Klingons. "We don't share food with weak little runts like you."

The Vulcan remained calm, "Please let me pass; I'm hungry."

The Klingon, called Q'taak, sneered, "I'll break yer neck if you try and eat. We work; you just move the rock we mine. You don't deserve our food."

The Klingon made to turn away, but Soreq let his annoyance get the better of him, "It is not _your_ food!" The Vulcan made to push past the Klingon.

Outraged, Q'taak swung around, raising his arm to strike a blow that would easily have knocked Soreq out. Luckily for him, Malcolm managed to catch the blow before it fell. Over on the other side of the compound, Katrina sat up, assessed the situation, and slid a small object from the folds of her clothes. "Do not challenge me human!"

Malcolm had passed the diplomacy stage about a week into living in the compound, so he spat back, "I thought Klingons were meant to have honour. There is none in striking a child. You are pathetic and weak."

"Why do you defend it? It holds no blood of your race."

"I don't care what he is."

Q'taak smirked, "Then it is you who is pathetic." The Klingon twisted deftly out of Malcolm's grip, and kicked his legs from under him. He landed a heavy punch into Malcolm's stomach, who curled up in defence. Q'taak made to attack Malcolm again, but froze when a slight, blonde, human woman placed herself calmly between the Klingon and her two charges, "Move human! Or I will kill you with them."

Katrina smiled, "We all know you wouldn't do that, Q'taak, the Pensari tend to get a little annoyed when they lose slaves. Imagine what they would do to you," she taunted, "If you attempt to harm any of us again, I, however, will kill you."

"You? I would like to see you try."

Katrina smiled amiably, "However much it would delight me to put a few more nail marks onto your face, I find stabbing is the preferable way of killing someone." From behind her back, Katrina produced a metal pick axe head, "Unlike you, Q'raak, I have a brain, so I thought it would be a great idea to take one of these when the tunnel collapsed in, when the foreman wouldn't bother counting the tools. I hope we have an understanding now?" To emphasize her point, she brought the sharp tip up to Q'raak's throat.

The Klingon didn't respond to begin with. He, like the whole compound, was frozen in silence upon the production of the sharp implement. Even Malcolm didn't dare to move. Finally, Q'raak found a small snarl to put into his now less than confident voice, "You have guts, woman, I'll give you that. If you stay away from us, I see no reason why we should bother ourselves with filth like you. Collect your food."

Katrina smiled and slowly lowered her weapon. A Ri'kya handed the three bowls of food to them, and they returned to their corner. After a few minutes of silence, normal life resumed and a buzz of voices began to ring once more around the compound. The two humans and their Vulcan charge ate in silence, until Soreq spoke, "Thank you for saving me, I was rude before."

Katrina shrugged it off, glaring as she saw that Malcolm's eyes sparkled with triumph. After Soreq was asleep, Katrina tried to act indifferent as she piled up the bowls and prepared to sleep, allowing Malcolm to take the first watch. Only a few seconds after she had closed her eyes, she opened them once more, glaring accusingly at her friend, "Don't look so smug."

"I wouldn't dare."

Katrina grunted, unconvinced.

"I'm just glad you've warmed to him. I was worried I would have to manipulate you, and I'm too tired for that."

Katrina closed her eyes, smiling, "What can I say? I have a fetish for pointy ears."

Malcolm snorted, "I'll wake you in an hour."

Katrina didn't respond, having learnt a long time ago how to fall quickly into a deep sleep. Malcolm smiled fondly at the two forms curled up in their corner, and then turned his attention to the surrounding aliens.

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: Please review, I would love to know your thoughts!


	4. A Turn of the Tide

Author Notes: Thank you so much for the feedback - it really motivates me to write! Anyway, here's the next chapter!

Chapter 4: A Turn of the Tide

Malcolm's shoulder jarred as he was roughly shaken awake by Katrina, who hissed in his ear, "_Pensari!_"

Malcolm bolted upright to regard with wide eyes, the open doors of the compound. Not one slave dared to make a sound as the disgusting creature glided inwards with another man in a hooded cloak. They were flanked by five burley foremen, "Perhaps a slave in this compound is satisfactory to your needs sir?"

"Shit," Katrina muttered in shock, "It's a buyer! _No one_ wants to buy mine slaves!"

"Apparently this guy does." Malcolm whispered back.

The hooded man leisurely strode around the compound, completely at ease with the situation. Not one slave dared move in the presence of the Pensari; one alone could instil more fear than twenty foremen. Malcolm felt Soreq press himself closer to him in fear as the stranger moved towards them. After only working two shifts down the mines, the boy had become more paranoid and jumpy than Malcolm had ever been on Enterprise. The man stopped in front of them, causing Katrina's breath to catch in her throat, "You, boy, come to me."

Too scared to do anything but obey, Soreq slowly got to his feet and padded cautiously towards the man. Malcolm tilted his head in an effort to see the buyer's face, but to no avail. A whispered question-answer session then took place between the two. Finally, the man straightened up and addressed the Pensari, "Molxac, how much for these three slaves; the humans and this boy?"

"All three sir? How much are you willing to pay?" Molxac dodged the question, obviously hoping the buyer would offer more than their worth.

"That is not what I asked you. I do not appreciate games. Answer the question."

Molxac's smarmy smile became slightly fixed, "500 rohl apiece."

"The humans are half starved." He turned towards Malcolm and Katrina, "What skills to you have in space?"

Malcolm bowed his head and spoke, "I can fix things sir, mainly munitions based."

Katrina seemed to be in temporary shock, so Malcolm elbowed her in the ribs. Raising her voice no more above a whisper, Katrina answered, "I was taught to pilot sir, any manner of craft."

The hood bobbed as its occupant nodded, "I will pay 300 for them; their race is weak, but their skills just make up for their existence. 400 for the Vulcan, he is only a child."

The Pensari nodded, "Done." He turned to the foremen, "Prepare them for processing."

"That will not be necessary. All I require is that you remove their chips; I have my own. I am a busy man Molxac, and you bore me with the speed you conduct business."

"As you wish, sir." The two men walked out of the compound, and the foremen came to collect the three.

"Bloody hell." Malcolm muttered.

"No kidding."

* * *

After a short shuttle ride with their new owner and a crony of Molxac, Malcolm, Katrina and Soreq soon caught a glimpse of their new home. The ship was huge. It was constructed entirely out of an iridescent blackish material, presumably Oribium. Its shape was like that of a narrow arrowhead, and underneath the ship were two curved pad-like pieces of metal at either end; they seemed to have no other purpose but that of a decorative design. Their shuttle docked smoothly, and the mysterious man exited. Not needing to be commanded, the three companions followed.

They left the docking bay, and remained silent until the shuttle had left the ship. What happened next almost made Katrina faint with fear; Soreq ran up to their new master and hugged him. To their surprise, the man laughed, and as he did so, his hood fell down, revealing a Suliban, "You're father would not approve of your emotions, Soreq. He will be here shortly, I, meanwhile, must return to the bridge. Our drive failed yesterday, so we must proceed to Krolel Drift on impulse alone."

The door slid open, revealing a Vulcan man, standing tall, "Father!" The twelve year old looked fit to explode with joy. The man allowed himself a small smile.

"Return to your post Commander."

"Yes sir." The Suliban swiftly left.

"It is well to see you Soreq, I feared I had lost you." He looked towards the humans, "The Commander sent word ahead about them. You are certain they are trustworthy?"

"They have saved my life Father, and are skilful."

Katrina shifted slightly, "I do not mean to speak out of turn, my lord, but may I ask what you will do with us?" Malcolm, if he had not been so worried and confused, would probably have snorted with laughter upon hearing Katrina's suddenly refined and meek voice.

"Ah, you have been in house service before I see. And you?"

"No sir." Right now, Malcolm didn't feel like holding any in depth conversations with the Vulcan.

Soreq's father smiled placidly, "In answer to your question, my dear, I am going to free you. You are welcome to leave when we reach the Drift, or remain and become a paid member of my crew; it would be a welcome change to have humans on board the Hephaestus, this ship."

"Free..?" Katrina seemed to be having trouble processing what was happening.

"I will let you get adjusted. To begin with, you must all be checked over by our physician and clean yourselves up. The mining business is disgraceful. My name is Vorik, by the way, and tonight we shall discuss your future over dinner. Your names are?"

"Malcolm and Katrina, Captain." Malcolm supplied.

* * *

Ecklaqa, a Ri'kyan doctor, gave her race's version of a smile. Thankfully, she spoke English, having learnt it from Vorik. Since the removal of their slave chips and the lack of universal translators upon arriving aboard the Hephaestus, communication had been somewhat limited. "You welts are healing well, Malcolm, you are lucky they did not get infected. I will inject you with a unit of nanobots to quicken the process. I'm afraid there will still be scarring due to the amount of time they remained untreated."

"Nanobots?" Malcolm asked nervously, "I think I'll leave it thanks."

Katrina sighed in frustration, "Either let her inject them now, or I'll slip them into your food. Trust me, they're disgusting to swallow; cling onto your throat in clumps for hours. Don't worry; it's one of the few decent things the Covenant has invented."

"Fine!" Immediately, the sound of a hypospray discharging into his neck could be heard.

Soreq bounded in, "Ecklaqa, can they leave now? Father says dinner's almost ready."

The Ri'kya nodded, producing two bottles out of a cabinet, and handed them to each human, "These are vitamins. They are designed to be swallowed, not to be dust collectors. One every morning. I'll be doing spot checks."

They nodded, and walked off down the ship's corridors. Katrina constantly fiddled with her top, made of grey cotton like material, which was the uniform of all on board, "These clothes are weird."

"You're just not used to it. My feet already kill being back in boots." Malcolm ran a hand through his now clean, shorter hair. Katrina had cut it for him, but refused to cut it any shorter than the top of his ears, saying any shorter and he would look like an army officer. As such, his dark hair stood up in all directions in a messy style. It was strange not having the weight of his previously long hair on his head.

"Here we are." Soreq gestured through a door.

* * *

The dinner went well, mostly eating in a comfortable silence. Finally, Vorik spoke, "Have you decided upon your future?"

"Yes Cap'n." Katrina smiled, "Despite the fact that we were proved wrong by your son, we are very grateful for the rescue. As we have nowhere else to go, we'd really like to stay."

"I had hoped you would. Unlike most Vulcans, I find the presence of humans refreshing. You will be assigned quarters next to each other, and you will begin your official service on my ship when we have completed our business at the Drift. Until then, I insist you rest and make yourselves at home."

"Thank you Cap'n." Katrina grinned. "If you would excuse me, I should like to get some sleep."

The two humans bid goodnight, and followed a scaly crewman to their new quarters. Malcolm smiled, "Your manners disturb me."

"I can be polite when I want to be, I just normally don't. Are you alright with this?"

"Alright? I'm fine. You were right, you know."

"About what?"

"Things did change"

* * *

"One Andorian and one human life sign due east, Commander." Lieutenant Gary Richmond, the security officer of the Enterprise, informed Trip as they skulked through the back alleys of Yekara, a colonist settlement for multiple races that had turned hostile in the last fifty years. They were looking for Captain Archer, who had responded to a distress call sent out by Commander Shran, whom he had owed a favour to. Needless to say, the two of them were both now prisoners.

Trip nodded curtly, and the two set off at a brisk pace. It was Richmond's first away mission on the Enterprise, although he had served aboard the Columbia prior to his placement. Trip was tolerant of him, but found the way in which he praised every decision Archer made incessantly annoying. In the last month, after Archer had declared Malcolm missing, presumed dead, Trip had found himself drifting away from the crew. Nowadays, he tended to spend most of his time with T'pol, Hoshi and Travis when he wasn't in Engineering; his friendship with Jonathan was under incredible strain.

They found the breakout itself was relatively simple, with only having to take out two Yekaran guards; the only problem was the blaring alarm that they had inadvertently triggered. "We have to get out of this sector!" Trip yelled over the siren, "The metal in the buildings interferes with the transporter."

Richmond led the way to the designated pick-up point; a small market. Both of the captives had been injured, Shran more then Archer, so their progress was quite slow. Finally they reached the place where they could contact Enterprise. Shots rained down on them, making it impossible for Trip and Shran, who were on one side of the market square, to reach Archer and Richmond, who were in transporter range and already being beamed out. "This is a pathetic rescue, pink skin."

"I'll bear that in mind for the next time when I won't bother," Trip snapped back, attempting to lay down some sort of cover fire so that Shran could attempt to get across to where the other to had been a few seconds before.

There was a small break in the onslaught, prompting Trip to literally shove Shran over to the point. It was only when he did this that he saw a Yekaran aim at the Andorian. Without allowing his mind to process any decision, Trip lunged, pushing Shran out of the way. The last thing he acknowledged before darkness encompassed him was a shout for a medic.

* * *

"Enter." Trip called from his cabin. It had been three days since the rescue, and Phlox had finally released him from sickbay. The Engineer was surprised to see Commander Shran come through his door.

"My ship will arrive within the hour. I did not thank you for saving my life."

Trip shrugged, "The Cap'n would've killed me if I hadn't."

"Nevertheless, you pink skins are going out of your way to make me in your debt. I have decided to repay this debt now. What I am to tell you may or may not help, but I consider this a full repayment of our favour. Archer does not know."

Trip quirked an eyebrow, "I'm listening."

"While I was in the captivity of the Yekarans with Archer, we had much time to talk. He told me what happened to Lieutenant Reed," Trip stiffened.

"Get out. I don't want any sympathy or crap."

"I would never dream of giving sympathy to anyone," Shran said indignantly. "I have come to understand that you are the only one on this ship who still refuses to accept the fact that he is dead; ridiculous if you ask me. However, I thought you might find it interesting that the alien that your crewman described was a Pensari." Shran turned to leave.

"What? T'pol said they didn't exist." Trip couldn't believe what was transpiring.

"T'pol is a Vulcan, and as such very narrow minded. The Pensari are an elusive race owing to the fact they will only deal with Orions. They are only sighted in the Borderlands; nowhere else. If Reed was indeed taken by a Pensari, he will be somewhere in the Borderlands. That is all I know on the matter." Shran made to walk out the door, and then turned, "I hope you find Reed, he was one of the more tolerable pink skins on this ship."

Trip sat in shock. In his heart, he knew there was no chance in hell Archer would ever authorise Enterprise to go into the Borderlands. He smiled sadly, memories of the past year flitting through his mind.

Life must go on.

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: Okay, Trip won't feature now for the next few chapters, because I need to establish the world for Malcolm. After that, he shall return, don't worry! Anyway, please let me know what you think!


	5. Jumpwave

Author Notes: Jumpwave is my own creation. I would appreciate it if anyone who might want to use it to ask.

Chapter 5: Jumpwave

"Fire three rounds, left centre."

Malcolm did as he was instructed. The handgun was nothing like a phase pistol. It fired short rounds of red energy, and there was no stun setting. The shots created chemical reactions, which would do a lot of damage. "Good." Huron, the Head of Security on the Hephaestus, and an Andorian, nodded in approval, "You have a good aim, and have an aptitude for this weapon; usually people are put off by the awkward sight. I do not see any problems with you joining my team, apart from perhaps your language difficulties."

Malcolm discharged the cell in the gun, "We're having lessons in Common everyday. The fact that we had the chips means we have a slight knack for the grammar. I should be able to converse in Common basically by the end of the month."

The Andorian smiled, "Good." He checked the time, "The Captain wants you on the bridge in five minutes. The drive has finally been installed and we will leave the Drift presently. Not soon enough in my opinion. You can inform the Captain that you are to take the Bridge duty. Dismissed."

Malcolm returned the gun to the rack and made his way to the bridge. They had been on the Hephaestus for two weeks now, and both were settled in already. It turned out that Vorik used the Hephaestus for cargo runs; very productive too. It was perfectly legal, but Vorik tended to avoid the Covenant when he could.

Malcolm strode onto the Bridge and took his place at the station. Katrina was sitting in the pilot's chair, which was surrounded by various controls. The Bridge was larger than the Enterprise's, with more people on duty. Katrina twisted to talk to him, "The Cap'n is talking to the Commander about the next cargo run. So, you ready for my piloting skills?"

Malcolm frowned, "Warp isn't exactly hard to pilot."

"Warp? Nah, way too slow, and the drives are enormous. The presence of Oribium in this galaxy means we can harness a far better mode of faster than light travel."

Malcolm swallowed nervously; he didn't like the glint in Katrina's eye, "What is it?"

"Jumpwave. Oribium is the only substance that can give a ship a big enough kick for it to be traversed." Malcolm still looked blank, so she explained, "There is another dimension, only slightly out of phase with this one. By entering this dimension, we can enter Jumpwave. Across the universe, there are waves, pulsing in random directions; a good pilot can skip across these waves to get to their destination, it's what the skimmers under the ship are for. A piece of advice, hold onto something before we Jump. If you're not used to it, you'll go flying. Don't worry though, after a while, you get used to keeping you feet."

"And _you're_ piloting?"

"Very funny. I'll have you know I was very skilled; my old master wanted me to be his pilot after his old one died."

The door slid open, revealing Vorik, "Ah, Katrina, I see you are prepared. The co-ordinates have been transferred to navigation, only a small journey, just a chance for you to display your skills. When you are ready." He moved over to a station parallel to Malcolm's and opened a ship wide channel, "This is the Captain; all hands prepare for a Jump."

Katrina gave a sharp nod, "Aye Cap'n." Grasping the controls, she slipped into a heightened state of concentration, "Engaging Jumpdrive."

The Hephaestus gave an almightily leap; if Malcolm hadn't been holding onto his consol, he would have been thrown back with so much force, he would likely have hit the wall a few metres behind him. The screen was filled with iridescent silver waves, like smoke, that danced and crossed over in all directions in a two-dimensional manner, one of which was enveloping them. Every time Katrina jerked the controls, the ship leapt over to another wave. "Switch to sensor control." Katrina instructed.

Immediately the screen switched to an overhead view of the Hephaestus, surrounded by green pulses moving across a large radius. They confused Malcolm completely, but apparently they made sense to Katrina, who piloted with ease. She called out, "Exiting Jump!"

The ship gave another nauseating lurch, before returning smoothly to impulse. Vorik gave the Vulcan version of a smile, "You are an excellent pilot, but then, humans always have been. Apparently, the mix between emotions, impulse and logic within your race are a perfect combination for Jump pilots."

"Thank you Cap'n. Should I continue to our actual destination?"

"Yes." He turned to a Ri'kya, "Qexr, you have the Bridge."

As Vorik left, Katrina called to Malcolm, "How'd you like it?"

"Bloody wonderful." Malcolm spat sarcastically.

Katrina laughed, and prepared to re-enter Jumpwave.

* * *

A human woman ran down the corridors of the Hephaestus, not stopping for anyone. She burst into the Infirmary, and confronted one of Ecklaqa's assistants. She spoke Common; the last three months aboard the Vulcan's ship having made her fluent, "Where's Mal?"

"He is in theatre at the moment. You will have to wait until they are done. Do not worry, we were very fortunate to get Ecklaqa as a doctor, she is one of the best. Please, if you could wait outside?"

Katrina nodded, went back out into the corridor and began pacing, "Bloody idiot." She muttered, "Can't go one week without getting shot at."

She had received the news about what had happened on the planet in her quarters, and had come straight down. She had no idea what had happened; only that the Captain was unconscious, Malcolm was in surgery and the Head of Security, Huron, was dead. It had taken the other two members of the Security Team an hour to get them back to the ship. Katrina wrung her hands, and then leapt put of her skin when someone touched her shoulder. She turned to see a Suliban woman. Her clothes were torn slightly, and covered in blood that was not her own, "You're a friend of Malcolm aren't you?"

"Yeah. Were you on the team? What happened? How is he?"

"I'm no doctor; I don't know how Malcolm is, though I wouldn't say he was doing too well. Huron died of blood loss in transit; we are lucky Malcolm did not. It is thanks to them that the Captain is alive."

"What happened? I thought it was just a meeting with a client."

"Yeah, a Nexritu, and they have tempers shorter than a Klingon. The conversation got really heated from what I could hear; only Malcolm and Huron were in the room with Vorik. Shots were fired, that's when we came in. It seems Huron and Malcolm managed to get Vorik out of the way, but knocked him unconscious in the process. We all got into a fight, but Malcolm and Huron got shot before we managed to disarm them. Huron had been shot by a round of Ika; the shots that contain the nanobots. He didn't stand a chance." She smiled weakly, "I'm sure Malcolm will be okay. He's strong, for a human."

"Yeah." Katrina leaned against the wall, and slid down to sit. It would be a long wait.

* * *

Katrina sat by Malcolm's bedside. He had been unconscious for a few hours now, and was the only occupant of the Infirmary, Vorik having been cleared earlier. A stirring drew Katrina's attention, "Malcolm?"

A groan, then, "Sod off."

Katrina grinned widely, "Sorry, you've been asleep for far too long already. Time to get up."

Malcolm blearily opened his eyes and regarded his friend, "What happened?"

"You were a compassionate idiot. Again. I swear you have no sense of self-preservation."

"Clearly."

Katrina snorted, "You are sick; you're agreeing with me." She sighed, "This is why I like being a pilot; hardly anyone shoots at you."

"Not as much fun." Malcolm half-joked.

There was silence, and then, "Why do you do it?" Katrina exploded, "We're not on any Covenant ship! Vorik is your superior, not your friend. Why do you risk your life for him? Your life is no less important than his, so why?"

Malcolm was shocked, "Where did that come from?"

"I was worried Mal; Huron died, you could have too. You're the only sane person on this ship and I don't want to lose you." Malcolm didn't reply, "I'm going to be late for my shift. I'll come by later, so get some sleep, okay?"

Malcolm nodded. Katrina strode out of the room, and then slowed to a normal pace as she meandered her way up to the Bridge. She didn't know what it was, but her life at the moment was making her jittery, like she needed to move on. She shouldn't feel like this; she was safe, settled and had a great friend. Nevertheless, she knew that if things didn't change soon, she'd probably go nuts.

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: I would love to know what you think.


	6. In Eclipse

Author Notes: Hi again! Thanks so much for all of your reviews! They really keep me motivated. Only two more chapters before the Enterprise rejoins the story, so bare with me. Malcolm has a lot more to do before he can see them again!

Chapter 6: In Eclipse

Blood pounded in her ears as she scrambled across the rugged terrain, attempting to avoid the shots being fired at them. Her breathing was ragged and shallow, and in the corners of her vision, stars danced in torment. She reached the peak of the slope that they had been driven up by the tribal Nexritu and staggered over to where Malcolm was standing. At first, she didn't realise why he wasn't running, and then it hit her as sharply as the violent blast of wind that suddenly whipped her hair. A roiling sensation could be felt in the pit of her stomach. Her voice wavered, "Shit."

They were standing on the edge of a cliff that gave sharply to the sea. Far out to the horizon, Katrina could just make out the shuttle attempting to get to them, but she knew that they couldn't come up to them, or they would be shot down. They were stuck; the only way was to jump. The ocean was calm and blue, and under normal circumstances she would have had no inhibitions about jumping. Katrina opened her mouth to explain to Malcolm, but he beat her to it, "We have a problem. There is no way in hell I'm jumping, I'd rather face the Nexritu," He swallowed, his face turning, if possible, even paler, "I…I have aquaphobia."

Katrina stared, "Fear of water?"

Malcolm gave a crooked smile, "Fear of drowning."

"Ah. Well, I wasn't planning on jumping either. I have vertigo."

"You? Scared of heights?"

"Nope. Scared of the impact." A shot whizzed past a foot away from her arm, "Okay. Here's the deal. I don't particularly want to be shot at and roasted on a spit. We have to jump." She held out her hand, fear clearly radiating from her eyes.

"You jump, I jump?" Malcolm grasped her hand, now shaking, "I can't swim – I know how, I just…can't."

"Well, I can't jump. You deal with that, I'll deal with the swimming." Katrina shut her eyes.

A horrible screeching mass of limbs and claws flooded over the hill. In one jump, Malcolm leapt cleanly off the cliff edge, pulling his friend with him. They gathered velocity as the wind wailed in their ears. Then it was all over. A calm bubbling could be heard, and then panic overtook him. In the fall, he had not taken in a breath, and now began to sink. The grip on his hand, however, did not let go, despite the impact the two bodies had felt when they hit the water. Together, they managed to reach the surface. Malcolm coughed violently, all of his energy having left him. His vision began to blacken and the water suddenly seemed freezing. He felt someone pull him up again, and then he heard the combined sounds of gunfire and an engine.

* * *

Katrina shivered under the blanket, her eyes fixed intently on Malcolm, who still looked rather pale. She couldn't believe how much the mission had screwed up in so short a time. It had been the first mission she had been allowed on, and that was after six months of being on the Hephaestus. It had meant to been a simple cargo pick-up, but five crew were dead. Only she and Malcolm had survived, plus Kril, another pilot who had stayed on the shuttle.

They sat in the back room of the shuttle, out of earshot from Kril. Today had been the last straw for Katrina. Malcolm had warned Vorik thousands of times that Nexritu shouldn't be taken on as clients, and still the pig-headed Vulcan had gone ahead. This was the second time that it had almost got her friend killed. She shifted to get comfortable. Now was as good a time as any, "Mal? I want to tell you something."

"Sounds ominous." Malcolm croaked, smiling.

Katrina tucked a strand of her damp blonde hair behind her ear, "I'm leaving the Hephaestus. I hate taking orders and I can't stand this anymore; it's no better than being a slave. I have enough savings to try and get my own ship. I'm going to tell the Captain when we get back." She lowered her eyes, not wanting to see Malcolm's reaction.

"Am I invited?"

Katrina looked up sharply, "I didn't think you'd want to. You seem to like it here so much."

"Like it? It just reminds me of what I had, and in retrospect, even that wasn't so good. I would love to have you as a Captain. Besides, you're a crap shot, you need me. I have savings too; we can get a ship."

Katrina broke into a grin, and then hugged him. She pulled away, "You have nothing against being illegal, right? Because I really don't want to abide to Covenant and Pensari rules."

Malcolm smirked, "Who wants to be boring?"

* * *

"I still don't get how you do it!" Katrina complained, trying to force her fingers into the arrangement that Vorik had used in farewell.

Malcolm laughed as they strode along the grubby corridors of Ancala Drift where their old captain had left them. It was a relatively large station, alive with pilots, engineers and other less than savoury characters. It orbited a huge gas giant that inhabited the same solar system as a junk-planet, as Soreq had so fondly described it. Basically, it was a scrapyard of old ships, one of which Katrina had bought and Malcolm was yet to see. They had rented a hanger and adjoining quarters for two months to make the ship spaceworthy. The station was a place that Malcolm would have hated to set foot in while in the employ of Starfleet, but now? Now it just felt like where he was meant to be.

Katrina punched in the code and swiped her keycard. The rusting doors grated open to reveal their temporary home. To be perfectly honest, the ship _was_ a pile of junk, but then Malcolm had expected no less. It was larger than he had anticipated, and he could see that it had the capability to enter Jump; whether it would stay together was another matter. "I did mention I'm not an engineer, right?"

"Don't worry, I've already found one, he'll be here in a couple of days; Vorik recommended him. So, what do you think?"

"I think she is an incredible reflection of her Captain." He was whacked in the arm.

Katrina led him up the gangway. "She has two living levels and a huge cargo hold. Engineering is competent and decent weapons can be installed easily. There is large living area and a mess combined in one room and we also have a small infirmary to cater for your hobby of getting injured. The quarters are all situated on the top level. There's ten quarters, however miniscule they are."

"Ten? Are we planning on having that many crew members?"

"At the very least we'll need three, and that's a bare minimum of hands. This ship was a Covenant supply runner, so had a large crew for her size."

"I suppose we'd better get started then."

Katrina handed Malcolm a list that she had scribbled together, "This is what I want her to have. I won't let her fly until she's up to my standards."

Malcolm scanned the list, "A cloaking device? And energy shields? Are you kidding? And these weapons-"

"You'd be surprised how cheap all that'll come. By the time this ship is finished, it'll be such a combination of different races' technology it'll be unique. The way you're reacting, you'd think I was asking for some magic device that teleports people."

Malcolm raised an eyebrow, but decided not to comment.

* * *

Sparks shot out from the consol Malcolm was working on. Katrina poked her head around the corner, "Please don't break my already battered ship, Mal. Do you want to come and meet our new engineer? He'll be here in a minute."

Malcolm nodded and wiped his grimy hands on his once green t-shirt. He hopped out onto the ramp and strode over to where Katrina was shaking a man's hand. Malcolm was shocked to see that he was human; having only ever seen Katrina he had presumed all were slaves. The man was in his late twenties and had a calm air about him. The most noticeable feature of him was his hair: a mass of deep auburn waves, tied loosely into a rough knot. His eyes were bright green. "Hi, I'm Jamie." He put his bag down and shook Malcolm's hand.

Katrina spoke up, "I'm Katrina, the Captain of this ship, and this is Mal, first mate. You as good an engineer as Vorik said you are?"

"I hope so. Your ship is magnificent."

Malcolm snorted, "You have a weird taste."

"But it's such a _challenge_!"

"Okay, you are definitely an engineer."

Katrina smiled at their new crewmember, "Your temporary quarters are through that door and if you want to stay on after she's fixed up, you can find some on board later. We have all the equipment and materials, it's just the actual work left now."

Jamie nodded, and then bounded on the ship; Katrina quirked an eyebrow at his enthusiasm. She turned to Malcolm, "What do you think?"

"I trust him. And I like him; a rare combination when it comes to me, I assure you. What did he do before this?"

"He's an ex-cargo runner. His last Captain turned his hand to slavery a little while ago and he pulled out."

Malcolm nodded and then went to see what their new companion was up to.

* * *

"Cheers!" The three friends downed their shots and refilled. It was their last night on Ancala Drift; in the morning they would set off. They already had a job carting Oribium crystals to an Outer Colony. Jamie had decided to stay on, but then there really hadn't been much question about it – after only a few days the three humans had become close.

"So." Jamie sat back in his chair, "Have you decided on a name yet Katrina?"

"However drunk you boys get me, I refuse to reveal it until the morning." Katrina grinned.

"She's lying." Malcolm stated, "She's already swaying. She'll be singing next."

"I don't sing!" Katrina said indignantly.

Jamie had to hold his breath to prevent himself from spitting his drink back out; Katrina glared. "Sorry; mental image."

Malcolm shook his head, "Unless you want to embark on our maiden voyage with any more of a hangover than we already undoubtedly will receive, I suggest we return to our quarters."

* * *

Malcolm stirred in his bunk, his head pounding. They had moved into the ship's quarters a week earlier to adapt easier and he was finally getting used to the arrangement of the room.

After an hour of wandering around like a zombie, Malcolm and Jamie were finally fully awake. They sat in the living area waiting for Katrina. Jamie stifled a yawn, "When do you think we should wake her?"

"When we have a death wish."

"You're finally up then?" Both men turned to the doorway where their Captain stood, "I've been up checking the cargo for ages. C'mon, time for you to see the ship in all its glory."

Katrina led them outside to view the ship. It was jet black, blacker than Oribium, and was a completely unique shape. Their attention was caught by the area under the cockpit, where the name of the ship was painted in curly bright white writing. Malcolm smiled, "Eclipse? It has a nice ring to it."

Jamie nodded, "I like it. Now I think we need to set off, don't you? I'll get down to Engineering."

Katrina grinned, "You realise we should have put his quarters in Engineering, don't you; he practically lives there anyway. Come on." Katrina walked up the gangway.

Malcolm brushed a strand of hair out of his eyes and stared up at the name. This was a new life. When he had been a slave, there had been hope of rescue, of returning. When he had been on the Hephaestus it had been like living on a twisted version of Enterprise with a steady structure. The Eclipse would be a whole new experience and if he was honest, he had a feeling this would be the best experience of his life. Malcolm smiled; for the first time he was truly happy.

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: Please review!


	7. Insurance

Author Notes: Thanks for all your reviews I'm sorry it took so long to update! I'm glad you picked up on a few things -when I write, I sometimes forget readers can't see into my head! As I can't think of a way to work more explanation into this chapter (I don't want my characters to dwell on the past too much), I'll explain here.

Basically, Malcolm won't go searching for the Enterprise because of the wormhole situation; he knows it would be pointless from what Katrina has told him. As to the trust issue, I've always seem Malcolm as a very good judge of character, and now he's with Katrina, it's got less paranoid and more instinctual. As for your question, volley, that will be explained in a future chapter. Hope that clears things up, if not, feel free to ask more! Anyways, on with the chapter!

Chapter 7: Insurance

"Sir, that won't be necessary. We will deliver your cargo to its destination." Katrina tried to explain to a particularly paranoid client.

"Of course you will, and this creature shall keep an eye on you. You will be paid in full upon reaching Sechri. There will be no arguments, or I will give the job to someone else."

Katrina sighed, "Very well sir. The cargo is fully loaded and my crew are ready to go, so if you could clear your slave, we will be on our way."

The man clapped his hands and a petite human woman, about twenty five, stepped forth. She would not meet anyone's eyes, "I shall give you a slave of your own race. Give her a name and she will answer to it. Now, I have other business to attend to." He swept off.

Katrina glared at his retreating back in disgust, and then turned to the woman and sighed; to be honest, she would have preferred an alien, at least then she would have been able to remain distant, "Follow me please."

The woman fell into step with Katrina two paces behind. They reached the Eclipse and received confused looks from both Malcolm and Jamie who were waiting on the gangway. Malcolm frowned, "Who's that?"

"One of that bastard's slaves. He _demands_ that we take her along so she can keep an eye on the cargo." She scrubbed her face with her hands, "Can you get her settled Mal? I want to enter Jump as quickly as possible and I need Jamie down in the Engine Room."

Malcolm nodded, and gestured for the woman to follow him to the quarters. "Have you been in Jumpwave before?"

"Yes sir." The reply was barely audible.

"Don't call me that, my name's Mal, or Malcolm if you want. What's you name?"

"Alexandria, sir."

"I won't win this argument, will I?" Malcolm commented, to no reply. He continued, "These are your quarters. Someone will yell if they're making something to eat, but feel free to help yourself."

"Begging your pardon, sir, but I will gladly sleep in the cargo hold."

"You what? Never going to happen, sorry. I don't give a shit what your master is like. While you are here you are a human, not a slave, alright?"

Alexandria gave him a strange look before diverting her eyes; she was clearly not used to this attitude. Malcolm sighed, "The bathroom's down the hall, but I'd advise you wait until we finish traversing the first Jump. I don't want you asking permission either. I'll be in the cockpit if you need me, okay?"

Alexandria nodded mutely. Malcolm sighed in frustration and went up to talk to Katrina.

* * *

Jamie hollered up the ladder, "Alexandria! Dinner!" 

A soft padding of feet could be heard above them, and the small human slid lightly down the ladder. She remained standing while the other three sat down. Katrina was not known for her patience, so she immediately stood back up and literally steered Alexandria to her seat, forcing her to sit. "Cut the crap woman. People can't be slaves without a master around."

The meal continued amiably and although Alexandria did not join into the conversation, she listened attentively. Malcolm rose first and shoved the dishes into the cleaner. They were spending the night in an asteroid field before continuing non-stop to Sechri the next day. By Malcolm's calculations, they should reach their destination by the sunset of the planet. It was a short stint for the poor woman, and he couldn't help but wonder what would happen to her when they arrived. Bidding his crewmates a good night, he retired to bed.

* * *

Malcolm sat bolt upright, his hand already on his gun. A tinny beeping had started up near his pillow; barely audible. It was the Night Proximity Alarm, which sounded only when Covenant ships were near. Considering their position, it was unlikely to be a coincidence. Malcolm didn't bother to pull on boots, only yanking on a pair of cargo pants he found on the floor. He slid out of his room to see Katrina, Jamie and Alexandria do the same, although the latter did it mainly out of confusion. 

"Alexandria! Get back into your quarters unless you know how to shoot a gun!" Katrina hissed. The woman complied.

Malcolm frowned, "It could be a false alarm." He was cut off by a scraping sound on the Eclipse's hull.

"Funny, that sounded like the beginnings of a Boarding Party to me. Alright, spread out; shoot whatever comes your way."

The three humans slid off in separate directions, sealing the hatch to the sleeping quarters behind them. Malcolm crept down to the cargo level, shivering slightly as the unheated air enveloped him. He crouched behind some crates as he heard voices. "They must all still be asleep; the idiots. We've found the hatch to the quarters and are breaking through now. Do you want us to start loading the cargo?"

Malcolm stole a glance at the nearest man, and was not surprised to find him lacking Covenant uniform. The tattoo that ran down the side of the man's face was a tell-tale insignia of a Raider, depicting which clan he had allied himself to. It was likely that the ship they inhabited was a smaller ship; one that would have been easy to hijack. Although admittedly Malcolm was thankful that they were not in the service of the Interplanetary Guard, whom they had already succeeded in pissing off a few times, Raiders were no more fun. The sound off gunfire filtered down from the level above, and the other Raider replied angrily, "I thought you said they were asleep? Deal with them."

Malcolm seized the moment, and took a clean shot at the retreating Raider's head, killing it instantly. The accompanying Raiders immediately hit the floor and returned fire. In hindsight, it was perhaps not the smartest move Malcolm had ever made, as five more Raiders had appeared. He managed to get a few shots in, but knew that if he wanted to do any damage, he needed to get to the arms locker. On the upside it was situated on this level, but unfortunately it was on the other side of the ship.

The Raiders were closing in, and Malcolm was beginning to feel more and more like a caged animal. Suddenly, shots rained down as Jamie leapt clean from the walkway above. Malcolm immediately darted out from his cover and ran as fast as he could to the secluded corner where the arms locker was situated. Hastily punching in the code, he grabbed the most logical choice of weapon; a Scythe Grenade. Yelling in English to Jamie to hit the floor, Malcolm threw the grenade out in the air. He then flattened himself to the ground. There was a whirring sound, and then a rush of air mingled with a few shouts of alarm. All went quiet, and then an echoing thud of the grenade hitting the floor sounded out.

Malcolm stood quickly and surveyed the damage, glad to note that Jamie was okay. He wrinkled his nose as the scent of burnt flesh reached his nostrils. A Scythe Grenade was by no means the nicest of weapons. As soon as it leaves the hand of the thrower, there is a two second count before it releases a twenty metre radius cutting wave of energy that slices through all organic matter. Even the Raiders that were crouched on the floor had had the crowns of their skulls sliced clean through.

"The Raiders weren't too experienced; they didn't even leave a skeleton crew. I shot everyone I could find. They're all dead." Jamie informed Malcolm.

"Where's Katrina?"

"Last I saw, she was attacking a few who were attempting to get to the top level."

Malcolm nodded and jumped up the steps to find her; Jamie following. They called her name, but received no answer. Then Jamie yelled, "I've found her! She's alive, but I think she was shot by an Ika gun!"

Malcolm cursed, and ran to where Jamie's voice came from. "I can't slow the bleeding."

"Help me move her to the med."

"No." Both men turned to see Alexandria standing behind them, "If you move her, the bleeding will worsen. Sir." She added as an afterthought.

Jamie frowned, "You a doctor all of a sudden?"

"Actually, I was before I was caught. I can help her if you'll let me."

"There's no cure for Ika nanobots." Malcolm stated despairingly.

Alexandria quirked the first smile either of them had seen from her, "Don't believe Covenant propaganda. It's not in their self interests to create a weapon they can't cure their own men from." She turned to Jamie, "Keep pressure on the wound, I need to get some things from your med bay." She rushed off.

"Do you think she's genuine?" Jamie asked his friend.

Malcolm couldn't tear his eyes off Katrina's body, "I hope so."

Alexandria's voice floated down the corridor, "I need someone to help here!"

"Go," Jamie told him, "I've got pressure on the wound, it would be stupid to switch."

Malcolm nodded and ran down to the med bay. "What do you need?"

"Do you have any live vaccines?"

"Like what?"

"Jurana Influenza, Poliomyelitis , Kio-"

"I think we've got Jurana; Jamie caught it a month ago, so me and Katrina had to take it." Malcolm rummaged around and produced a small bottle of a clear viscous liquid. He handed it to their new found doctor and watched.

Alexandria quickly unscrewed the top and picked up a metallically coloured capsule that she had got from a bottle marked _Oral Blood Clotting Nanobots_. "Normally, these are only useful for stopping nosebleeds or average cuts that refuse to clot; much more affective than platelets, but wouldn't stop an Ika wound from bleeding. However, when combined with a live virus they can simultaneously attack the other nanobots, which have some organic components, and heal the victim." She shook the bottle up and grabbed a hypospray, which she quickly filled with the solution. "Come on."

They returned to Jamie, "I've tried to staunch the bleeding, but it's not working very well."

"That's okay; this should take effect in a matter of seconds."

Alexandria administered the drug and the three waited, finally heaving a sigh of relief as the blood began to slow.

* * *

Jamie knocked on Alexandria's door, which swung open, "I thought you'd like to know, Cap'n says we'll be leaving within the hour. The client will be pissed; we'll arrive three days late." 

"Surely the salvage will be ample compensation if they deduct money?"

Jamie grinned, "Yep. That ship had a signature mask, which Katrina was ecstatic about; means we're less likely to be found the next time. _And_ it had distortion sensors."

"What are they?"

"Instead of looking for what is there, they look for what shouldn't be, like a slight disarrangement in a nebula; should come in handy. The rest we can sell."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, and then Alexandria spoke up, "You know, the idea of a shipwide communication is that everyone on the ship hears it. Considering that the Captain let us all know we'll be leaving soon, I'm thinking you didn't come by to give me an update."

"The Cap'n has been talking about buying you using some of the money from the parts we've salvaged. As you've seen, we need an accomplished doctor around the place. The fact that you're human only adds to your case. We wondered if you were interested."

"I'm not for sale."

"Well, now I feel loved."

"I don't mean it like that, I mean, I have to be a legitimate slave to be sold and I'm not."

"I'm not following."

"I was born on Aqxix."

"You were _what_? That's one of the central government planets! You're immune to slavery!"

"In theory. In reality, if they give you incentive, then you have no choice."

"You mean threaten you?"

She smiled crookedly, "Yes. It's funny - you are less likely to be a taken into 'slavery' if you are alone with no ties; minority races only of course. Me, I had a home and a little sister, so I _voluntarily_ left to work in the service of Geren. I was a doctor at Central Hospital, snagged on my way home one day, five years ago. I'm my sister's guardian, so they decided to make it a family outing. I don't know which is worse, serving Geren or being a Covenant citizen" She ended bitterly.

"Where's your sister now?"

"On Sechri; she's there to make sure I won't run away." She sighed, "I'm tired, do you mind?"

Jamie rose and bid her good night. He was going to tell the others about this. A sly smile broke out on his face, and he went to find them.

* * *

The Eclipse docked into a port on the southern continent of Sechri. Unbeknownst to Alexandria, the three other humans had formed a plan. They dutifully unloaded the cargo and were met with a Sechrian, who came with a shadow in the form of a ten year old human girl. He smiled, "Good, late, but good. Everything is in order." He handed Katrina a chip, "Access to the account." 

Katrina frowned, "This is a quarter of the amount we agreed on with your cousin."

"Don't be late then. Slave, come." He instructed Alexandria. Little did he know it, but he had just made it a lot easier for the crew of the Eclipse than they could have hoped for.

Malcolm side stepped to block Alexandria's path, "We do not like being double crossed."

Katrina raised her gun, "I almost died getting this cargo to you - shall we see how painful it was?" She charged the cell. Jamie and Malcolm followed suit.

The pathetic business man whimpered, "Fine, you can have your money!"

Jamie shrugged, "We don't want to go through all that; these two should about cover the costs." He gestured to the two humans.

"No, no, no, that's not possible; they are my cousin's property!" He cried desperately.

Katrina sighed dramatically, "You wouldn't want the Covenant to find out about your illegal slave suppliers, would you? I hear that type can get very nasty when betrayed, and they are very good at tracing a leak back to the source; namely you."

"I would have to go through the paperwork-"

Malcolm walked forwards and took the little girl by the hand, leading her over to her sister, "Paperwork is boring, and we need to be going. Remove their bracelets, or I'll remove your head." The bracelets were a version of chips.

Begrudgingly, the Sechrian complied.

* * *

Malcolm sat on the floor of the cockpit with Sara, their newest recruit, chatting in whispers so as not to wake the sleeping crew. "I want to learn how to shoot!" 

"Sorry kid, but your sister would likely kill me. Doctors are always the worst kind of people to piss off."

Sara giggled, "I know, she once 'accidentally' injected her boyfriend with a cold virus when he cheated on her. He was sneezing for weeks!"

Malcolm laughed, easily picturing Alexandria sneaking a hypospray into a guy's bedroom. He dreaded to think what the doctors on Earth would say to that kind of behaviour. His attention was caught by the doctor in question standing in the doorway, looking worried, "I'm sorry Commander! I hope she isn't bothering you."

"It's Malcolm already! This ship's not posh enough to have a bloody commander - not that I'd want to be one anyway. If you don't start calling me by my name, I'm going to start ignoring you. You're not a slave, and if you're anything like your sister describes, you are hardly reserved."

The woman smiled, "Very well, Malcolm. You can call me Alex. And thank you for earlier."

"It was Jamie's idea." Sara's stomach growled, making him laugh.

"Shall we go cook breakfast?"

Sara piped up, "Just so you know, my sister's a great doctor, but will likely give us food poisoning for a week."

"Sara! I'm not that bad!"

Malcolm smiled, and stood. As he and Alex walked into the corridor, Sara asked innocently, "Malcolm?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you realise how _boring _your hair is?"

Malcolm turned to see a very evil smile spreading over the Sara's usually innocent face.

To Be Continued…

Authors Notes: Blimey! That was longer than expected! Please review! I need to know what you think!


	8. Waifs and Strays

Author Notes: I am so amazingly sorry I haven't updated sooner! I've been trying to stop ignoring my other story. Anyway, no more excuses, please read on!

Chapter 8: Waifs and Strays

"It's not that I have a problem with it, it's just that they aren't even quiet about it! It's sickening!"

Malcolm smirked, "I'm sure they think they're being subtle. You know, if you made your feelings known, they would likely tone it down a bit; Alex probably thinks she needs permission or something."

"She already has bloody permission from Katrina! It's just so…so…yuck!" Sara complained.

"Malcolm," Katrina commented absently as she entered the room for a glass of water, "Please stop swearing around the girl, you're a bad influence."

"Katrina!" Sara pleaded, "Please tell my sister to stop eating Jamie's face in the corridors."

"Sorry kid, they never do it on the job, so I have no grounds."

Sara scowled. In the past months, she and Alex had settled into the crew of abstract humans easily. Admittedly, all of the adults had kittens every time Sara was in the remotest danger, but after three months together they were a family. That was not to say that there were no…domestic incidents. Not long after Sara joined the crew, she had delivered Malcolm an ultimatum: either he dyed his hair an interesting colour, or she would dye it pink in his sleep. Needless to say, Malcolm's hair was now streaked with green among his natural dark colour. More recently, much to Sara's disgust, Alex and Jamie had made their feelings known to each other. When they finally made it official, Katrina and Malcolm had had a quiet celebration, as it would mean an end to the constant pining that they were forced to endure from their friends.

Sara hopped off the breakfast stool and stole a piece of Malcolm's toast, "Fine, but I'll only put up with it if both you and Mal promise you'll never get together."

Both Malcolm and Katrina grimaced at the thought, "That would be just plain wrong."

"Never going to happen." Agreed Malcolm.

Before Sara could continue, her older sister entered the room, "Erm, Cap'n? Did you check the cargo before we left off?"

"Yes, why?"

Alex placed her hands on her hips and smiled wryly, "Because we have a stowaway; Jamie found him when he went to get a coil, he's with him now."

Katrina's mood dropped instantly and she pulled her gun from the holster at her hip; Malcolm followed suit. Simultaneously, they instructed to Sara, "Stay."

The three adults left the room, leaving a pouting eleven year old in their wake.

* * *

"Please! I'm sorry! I just needed passage to Terr'nsie."

"We've been travelling for five days! All that time you've been stealing our food and I'm supposed to forgive you?" Katrina spat at the stowaway.

"No! I swear! I haven't left the hold, I wouldn't dare! Please don't kill me!"

Katrina glared at him in disgust, the turned to Malcolm, "Have Alex check him for any transferable diseases, and then lock him in the brig."

Malcolm looked blank, "We have a brig?"

"It's not something I like to use. It's the hatch next to the secondary airlock," she turned back to the stowaway, "Try_ anything_ and I will shoot you."

Katrina strode out with Jamie in tow. Malcolm sighed, grabbing the intruder under his arm, hauled him to his feet, and led him to the med bay.

* * *

"Congratulations Mal, he's a moderately healthy, seventeen year old human boy." Alex quipped sarcastically, returning her equipment to the cupboards.

"I can hardly contain myself," Malcolm replied dryly; the boy shrank away from them both.

Alex washed her hands, "His hygiene leaves a lot to be desired, and his immune system is shot, but then he's human."

"What's your name?" The boy didn't answer; only stared meekly at the floor. Malcolm sighed, "I do not like violence towards people of the same race as me, but you are trying my patience. Answer the question."

The boy fidgeted, "Ryan."

Malcolm nodded, "Why were you in our cargo hold?"

"I told you-"

"You were lying. If you needed to get to Terr'nsie, you could have chosen countless, less equipped ships, ones with a different race to whom you could play dumb to. Instead, you choose a ship with technology equal to a Covenant cargo ship and an armed human crew. Either you are very dumb, or telling me lies. I don't believe you are dumb."

Ryan didn't reply, so Malcolm gave up and followed Katrina's orders, locking him in the brig.

* * *

Malcolm and Jamie walked at a pace through Zu'fae Drift. The Eclipse was only making a quick supply run to keep them going for the next couple of days before they arrived at their destination. They were almost back at the docks when something caught Malcolm's attention. The Covenant's version of a newspaper was being sold, with the headline warning about a murderer; the picture plastered on the stand was Ryan. Malcolm strode over and asked for a copy, "Dunno why ya want one," the Gereanu seller commented, "Full of Covenant propaganda. Only reason the boss wants us to sell 'em is 'cause its part of his fee to the Pensari."

Malcolm ignored him and hurriedly read the story. Ryan suddenly made sense. The pair returned to the Eclipse and presented Katrina with the news. "Well this is just bloody wonderful."

"Language," Sara reprimanded.

"Sara I don't have time for this! Please, just, go…somewhere." The girl slumped out of the living area.

Malcolm pinched the bridge of his nose, "We can't leave him on the drift."

"Why the hell not?"

"Look what it says at the bottom: _Anyone found to be aiding and abetting this criminal will face the same charges as the offender_. Katrina, that kid could turn us in."

"We're hardly aiding and abetting; he's locked in the brig!"

"Do you honestly think the Pensari will care? As far as they're concerned, the more people they can execute the better! Besides, we've already compiled enough crimes for a life long imprisonment."

"Fine, we'll drop him off on the nearest asteroid. I wonder who he murdered."

"I don't care." Malcolm said irritably, "Can we get going then?"

"Whose ship is this? Fine, we'll enter Jump immediately."

* * *

"Boo."

Ryan jumped out of his skin and whirled around to see a tiny human girl hanging upside down out of an air vent. He honestly didn't know how to react. The girl twisted herself around and sat down opposite him, "So_ you're_ the one that's got everyone so worked up. I'm Sara by the way. They chucked me out so they could decide your fate. Dunno what you've done, but Mal looked annoyed. So, who are you?"

"Ryan. I'm sorry, but what the hell are you doing in here?"

She shrugged, "I was bored, so came to see what all of the fuss was about. So, why'd ya run away?"

"I didn't run away." said Ryan defensively.

"Uh huh." Sara was unimpressed, "If that's meant to be convincing, you're screwed; Mal and Katrina are never gonna buy that."

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because I'm sweet, innocent and not allowed to shoot a gun until my fourteenth birthday."

"You wouldn't understand, you're only, what, eight?"

"_Eight? _I'm eleven. My birthday was last week."

"You're still a midget."

The ship lurched, throwing Ryan against the wall of his cell; Sara stayed put, "You haven't travelled Jump before, have you?"

"Space isn't natural."

"You're not natural. So, who'd you kill?"

"I told you- wait, you said you didn't know what I did!"

"I saw the headline."

"So all this crew think I'm a murderer?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

Ryan groaned and leaned against the wall, "It's not my fault the old git carked it before I could finish the job."

"You've lost me."

Suddenly, the ship exited Jump and there was a scraping sound as the hatch swung open. Immediately, Malcolm dragged Sara out, "_Sara! _What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Having a decent conversation for once. See you around Ry, if Mal doesn't kill you first." Sara then wriggled out of Malcolm's grip and shot down the corridor.

Malcolm turned back to Ryan, "Follow me. Now. Try anything and I'll shoot you."

Accepting his fate, Ryan slowly clambered out of the hatch and followed Malcolm down to the cockpit, where Katrina was waiting. She shoved the article into Ryan's hands, "_You little bastard_," she hissed, "You're little stunt has endangered my crew. Why couldn't you have chosen some nice friendly slave vessel to hide on? There's a death penalty on your head, so we're lucky you're a good stowaway, or bounty hunters would be swarming over this ship."

Ryan opened his mouth to protest, "It's not like it says! I didn't mean for you to find me!"

"That is a crap excuse. I hope you don't mind the cold, because I've found a nice frozen moon for you to make a home of."

"Please just let me explain! The Pensari wasn't meant to die! I was stealing from him and he had a heart attack! I swear!"

"Do you honestly think that I care?"

Their shouting match was interrupted by Alex yelling, "A ship's just exited Jumpwave! It's unmarked and hailing."

Katrina nodded, and instructed Malcolm, "Keep a hold of him." She then jumped into the pilot's seat and flicked on the view screen, "What?"

The creature on the other side was a Denjuuk, solitary creatures with no identifiable homeworld; particularly untrustworthy and violent, also incredibly dumb. "You humans are so blunt. You have something I want."

"Really? Enlighten me."

"A human boy; he committed a recent murder of a government official. There's a hefty price on his head, so how about you hand him over and I don't turn you into the Covenant."

However much Katrina would have dearly loved to offload the boy onto the bounty hunter, she knew they would just get blown up or taken along for the ride anyway. "Dunno what you're talking about, I think your tiny brain allowed you to take a wrong turn in Jump, mate."

"You will be destroyed for this insolence!"

"You are so cliché. Besides, if we do have the boy, you wouldn't want to blow up your paycheck."

"You said you didn't have him!"

"Didn't say I did. I was being hypothetical."

Katrina had to suppress a smirk as she saw the bounty hunter's face contort in confusion. While he was trying to work out whether 'hypothetical' was a threat, Katrina signalled to Malcolm to power up the weapons. He consequently targeted the Denjuuk's engines. For a bounty hunter, this one was quite pathetic; all ego and no brains. With the hunter's ship temporarily disabled, Katrina engaged Jump.

* * *

"I've decided to believe you."

Ryan's face was a picture of shock, "You're kidding."

"Don't contradict me. Bottom line is, you have to stay on this ship. Now the bounty hunters know about us, they'll be on our case twenty four seven, so even if we did get rid of you, they'd still come after us, not knowing you'd moved on. If we keep you, at least we can keep an eye on you. Don't make me regret this." Katrina strode off.

Alex wrinkled her nose, "Have a shower kid. Oh, and if you hit on me, my boyfriend will be the least of your worries."

"Welcome to the Eclipse." Jamie added, and the pair followed Katrina, leaving Ryan in the living area with Malcolm and Sara.

Malcolm tilted his head, "Should I trust you?"

"You're asking me?" When Malcolm nodded, Ryan frowned, "I'm no murderer, but I am a thief. I can also handle a knife, but then, most humans in the camp could. I dunno, I guess it's up to you."

* * *

The faith that the crew of the Eclipse put in Ryan paid off. He was a valuable asset and soon became just as integrated as everyone else. As Alex once commented, he was scarily like Malcolm, only more rash and trigger-happy.

Malcolm was leaning against the wall of the cockpit when Katrina found him; at three o'clock in the morning he hadn't anticipated being discovered. "What are you doing here?" Katrina slid down beside him.

"Looking for a star I recognise."

"Found Earth yet?" Katrina seemed to read his mind.

"No. I could always find it before. Now it's lost."

"You getting morbid on me?" she sighed, "How many days?"

"What do you mean?"

"How many days until the two year milestone? You've only acted like this twice before; once in the mines when you almost gave up on me, and once on the Hephaestus, almost a year ago. I honestly don't know how you keep track; I don't even know what day it is."

"It'll be two years next week, give or take. I was unconscious during processing so I can't be accurate."

"Do you still miss them?" Malcolm glanced sharply at his friend; they had never talked about his past life beyond him mentioning his rank.

"I don't honestly know. I guess I wonder what could have been, and how they are now, if they're even alive. I sometimes wonder what would've happened if we weren't in another galaxy – if there had been a chance of me finding them, or them me. But do I miss them? Do I regret what's happened in my life?" Malcolm leaned his head back against the wall, "I like this ship, I like the person I've become, and I like my new family. That answer your question?"

"Perfectly." Katrina cocked her head, "Are you bored?"

"Not much has happened recently, why?"

"I can see a drifter."

Malcolm jerked his head to the front window. Sure enough, a ship was drifting aimlessly to the port side of the Eclipse. Malcolm sighed resignedly and then smiled, "I'll go wake the others."

* * *

Ryan handed Katrina a log of the ship's history, "Not much really, as far as the scans could tell. Bit of weapons damage. I reckon it was attacked by slavers Cap'n."

"Ryan," Alex called from her consol, "You are crap at scanning ships."

Katrina frowned, "Why?"

"There's still a life sign."

* * *

Sara was with the new arrival, a young girl the same age as herself. Unfortunately, any hope of the girl divulging any information was scrapped upon the discovery that the child was mute. As such, Sara had named her Echo. No one really questioned the logic which would make most Vulcans faint; they just agreed.

While Sara was in her quarters with Echo, the rest of the crew were in the living area trying to decide her fate. Alex and Jamie were fine with the girl, and had already made their feelings known; Malcolm and Ryan were less so, "That kid is freaky. She just _stares_. She's not normal." Ryan protested.

"She's the same age as Sara!" Alex argued.

Katrina looked to Malcolm, "What do you think?"

"Ryan's right. There is something not right about her. I don't trust her. Besides," he said to Alex, "Looks can be deceiving."

Katrina nodded, "I'm not keeping the kid if two members of my crew protest. Does anyone have ideas with what to do with her?"

Jamie offered, "We could leave her to the Sanctum."

Katrina blinked, "The what?"

"It's a religious planet open to all beliefs. My sister Laura lives in a monastery there, and they're always glad to take in people with no where to go. It's a Covenant planet, but remains untouched by law due to the old defensive technology that remains there from some old civilisation."

Katrina nodded, "The Sanctum it is then."

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: I know! Too many new people, but don't worry, I have plans for all! However, I do think poor Trip is getting bored, don't you? Grins maliciously

Anywhooz, please review!


	9. The Linlr

Author Notes: Thanks for the feedback:) Finally, I am bringing Enterprise into it, sorry it took so long. Slightly worse language in this chappy.

Chapter 9: The Linlr

"Okay, Mal, I want you to go with Jamie and Ryan, and take Echo to the monastery. I'll stay here with Alex and try to cheer up Sara. You're sure weapons are allowed?"

Jamie nodded, "Yeah, but only to allow people to feel safer. Any shooting goes on and the Monastic Knights come bearing down on you."

"Alright, get back here as soon as possible. Oh, and Mal?" Malcolm turned back, "Don't get shot." Malcolm rolled his eyes smiling, and jumped down the gangway.

* * *

"Urgh. Commander? Commander, can you hear me?" Lieutenant Richmond gently tried to wake Commander Tucker up. 

A slight groan sounded from Trip's throat, and his eyes slid open. He tried to sit up, but his head span and he was forced to lie back down, "Wha' happened?"

"The shuttlepod crashed. I think we hit some turbulence or summit." Richmond was just as groggy as his commanding officer. "I've tried to hail the Enterprise, but they're not responding."

Trip groaned again, "You hurt?"

"No sir, just a bit of a headache. I've checked you over, and I think you probably just have a concussion, if that."

Trip nodded, "We should salvage what we can and then try and find open ground; these trees might be interfering with the transmission."

Richmond nodded and began to gather together some supplies.

* * *

"Hail them. Now." Archer commanded Hoshi. She nodded and opened a channel. 

"They're responding sir."

A Klingon captain appeared on the view screen, "You are trespassing human."

"You shot down two members of my crew!" Archer had had dealings with this particular Klingon before, and had long learned that he was beyond pleasantries.

"They were trespassing too. This planet was claimed by the Klingons decades ago. The penalty for trespassing is death; I already have scouts on the surface hunting for survivors. You must break orbit. I give you one hour" The screen went blank.

Jonathan bit his lip in thought. Mind made up, he said, "T'pol, you're coming down in Shuttlepod Two with me. I won't risk anyone else. Travis, you have command."

The whole bridge seemed to be in temporary shock. This order was so unorthodox; no one really knew how to respond. If the order was carried out, the four most senior members of the crew would be down on the planet. T'pol protested, "Captain-"

"I've made my decision." Knowing there was no arguing, T'pol inclined her head. Archer turned to Travis, "Remain in this solar system for twelve hours, after that time, return to Earth."

"Yes Captain."

* * *

Thankfully, Shuttlepod Two succeeded in making a safe landing in the undergrowth. Immediately, Archer and T'pol set off at a pace, praying to find their friends before the Klingons. 

Meanwhile, Trip and Richmond trudged through the sweltering rainforest. There wasn't really much conversation material, as they never talked to each other outside of their shifts. Trip fiddled nervously with his phase pistol. After three hours of trekking in silence, Richmond suddenly spoke up, "Commander! There's something over there!" Trip's head jerked up and his grip tensed on his phaser, "It's some sort of building."

Visibly relaxing Trip squinted into the trees, then up though the branches to the setting sun, "Let's check it out. It's going to get cold; we might be able to find shelter."

The Lieutenant nodded, and followed Trip through the undergrowth. The building turned out to be some sort of ruin, made of sandstone. Trip tentatively made his way up the crumbling steps and into the cooling air of the ruins. He heavily dumped his makeshift pack on the floor, releasing a cloud of dust; Richmond followed suit. "We won't go too far into this place – I think it's a temple; doubt anyone would want to live here."

Richmond nodded silently in agreement.

The sun set below the trees, casting the temple in an eerie silvery light. As Richmond slept, Trip took the first watch. He stared pensively out into the jungle, watching the trees murmur to each other. He didn't know why, but there was something in the air of this planet that made him feel strange. True, it was making him increasingly jumpy, but there was also a sense of anticipation hanging in the air, as if the long dead civilisation was waking up.

A sound from the floor next to him caught his attention; his communicator was flaring into life, "Archer to Commander Tucker. Trip? Can you hear me?" There was a sigh on the other end, as if the person trying to contact them had been trying for a long time.

Trip grabbed the small silver device and flipped it on, "Cap'n? That you?" At the same time, he woke Richmond.

"Trip!" The voice was one of relief, "Where are you? Are you injured? The Klingons are on this planet looking for you too."

"We're both okay; in some kind of temple. Why are there Klingons? Where'd they come from?"

"They shot you down." Realization dawned on Trip as his brain was prodded by a fuzzy memory, "Listen, just sit tight, T'pol is trying to trace your location now." A pause, "We're less than 300m from your position, we'll be there shortly. Archer out."

Gary Richmond allowed himself a small smile, but his relief was short lived. Shouts and the sound of phase pistols firing echoed through the once peaceful night. "Shit." Both men scrambled to their feet and grabbed their weapons.

Crashing through the undergrowth came a human and a Vulcan, running as fast as possible. The shots that pursued them prevented Trip and Gary from descending the steps and attempting to meet with their superiors, so Archer and T'pol ran up the steps instead. Without an exchange of words, the four members of Starfleet ran further into the darkness of the temple in a hope to lose the Klingons. Every so often, a shaft of silvery light crept down from the roof, illuminating the swirling patterns of detritus as it was stirred up by the retreating people.

Trip skidded to a halt as they reached a vast pillared hall, with no other exit. The Klingons pursued them so closely that to turn back would mean having to engage them in a fire fight in a confined, straight passage. A phaser beam hit a nearby pillar, leaving an innocent black smudge where it had landed. The Enterprise team returned fire, attempting to find cover. Trip ran towards the back of the hall in the hope of finding another doorway, but all he found were some strange pictorial writings etched into the aged stone. Another shot narrowly missed him, forcing him to press himself against the wall. Then, everything shifted.

A horrible sensation filled Trip's being; a tingling that he could both feel and hear that spread from his neck and down his spine. Sound distorted as the shouts that echoed everywhere began to dim and sharpen simultaneously. The rock against which he pressed smoothed itself, and then seemed to liquefy. Without having any control over his body, Trip fell backwards into the encompassing abyss of the viscous liquid.

* * *

Trip fell backwards onto the hard floor into a white marble room. He sat bolt upright as soon as his head stopped spinning. He wanted to throw up. Suddenly, the wall from which he had come from rippled, spitting out Captain Archer, followed by T'pol and finally Lieutenant Richmond. All four were in a state of shock, unable to move, until Archer began to clamber to his feet, "The Klingons might follow, come on." 

They set off at a jog, trying to find a way out, "Where are we?" asked Trip.

The four suddenly reached a doorway onto the outside world after turning a sharp corner. Blinking in the sharp sunlight, Archer raised an eyebrow as they stared at the serene woodland of deciduous trees. Cursing and coarse syllables echoed around the marble, snapping them out of their temporary paralysis; the Klingons had followed. Without a second thought, the tiring humans and Vulcan ran into the woods.

* * *

"We should be getting back – Katrina will be worrying." Jamie commented, smirking, "It was nice to see you again Laura. You'll look after Echo?" 

Jamie's older sister smiled, "Of course."

Malcolm, Jamie and Ryan followed Laura out onto the wooden balcony that jutted from the stone rooms of the monastery that were cut into the white rock. Laura was about to bid everyone goodbye, when a small girl, a Cardasian no older than six, padded out in one of the white robes that was the trademark of the followers of the monastery they were leaving Echo to. Laura frowned, "What is it?"

The child shifted nervously, "There is a shimmering lady asking for the Head of the Order."

Laura blinked, "Show me." All followed the girl back inside, curious of this turn of events.

Sure enough, in the centre of the room was a flickering image of a woman who belonged to a race that Malcolm did not recognise. She repeated the same phrase: _Urgent message for the Head of the Order._

"It's a hologram." Muttered Jamie.

"Don't state the obvious, do you?" Ryan responded.

"I am the head of this Order." Laura spoke in an authoritative voice, and then proceeded to say a phrase in another language.

The hologram flickered, and then relayed its message: _The Linlr has been activated. Weapons fire is detected in the northern quadrant. This monastery's Knights will be the quickest to respond. How shall the situation be contained?_

Laura visibly blanched. She composed herself and turned to Malcolm, Ryan and her brother, "You'd better leave now. I don't know who this is, but they'll have a lot of arms power if they're daring to assault the Sanctum, and I dread to think what a Linlr is. Go back to the Eclipse and Jump as quickly as possible; I have to contact the Covenant on this and I don't want you around." Laura turned back to the hologram, "How many Knights do we have?"

_Ten_

"Deploy three to assess the situation. If it is dire enough, deploy four more. Keep the remaining three in reserve."

The hologram bowed and flickered away.

* * *

The three crewmembers of the Eclipse darted through the woodland to try and reach the landing site. A roaring sound above them caught their attention, "What the hell..?" Ryan craned his neck to see three rockets fly over and then hover to land not far away. 

"The Monastic Knights." Jamie supplied.

Malcolm sighed, "They're androids? Bugger. We're moving. Now."

"_Robots?_" Ryan groaned.

Jamie gave his younger friend a less than reassuring smile, correcting him, "Killer robots that home in on weapons fire."

"Bloody perfect."

The three broke into a run, concentrating on not tripping over any protruding tree roots. Shouts and gunfire filled the air, which they tried to block out. As Malcolm ran, something nagged at the back of his mind. Suddenly, he ground to a halt. Both of his friends almost ploughed into him, "Mal!" Jamie hissed, "Come on!"

Malcolm suddenly went pale, "I know that." He muttered. He then turned to the other two, "Go back to the Eclipse, I need to see who is attacking this place."

"Are you nuts?" Ryan stared.

"The weapons fire is not like the rounds we shoot. I swear it sounds like…" Malcolm trailed off, and then looked directly at the others, "_Go!_ Tell Katrina I won't get killed."

If Jamie and Ryan had not trusted Malcolm so much, they would likely have protested further, but instead they ran.

* * *

It was chaos. It had only been barely manageable when the Klingons had been shooting at them, but now some psycho sword wielding androids had joined in the fun. It was only by running rather than shooting that they were all still alive at all; two Klingons had already had their heads chopped clean off. 

Trip saw that Captain Archer was in trouble, being closed in upon by one of the Klingons, so he stopped short and opened fire. Unfortunately, his concussion was making it difficult for him to focus and he kept missing the target. Behind him, a robot finished off another Klingon and turned its head towards the organic shooting a weapon.

* * *

Malcolm followed the sound of what he was now sure to be shots from a phase pistol. He skidded over the crinkly leaves, darting between the trees. A stray red beam of energy hit a tree nearby, and Malcolm saw a Klingon firing at a Knight. In the same glance, he also observed a man, who he didn't recognise, wearing the blue uniform of Starfleet. Malcolm scanned the pandemonium to assess the situation, and then his eyes locked on a familiar figure; Trip. Malcolm's mind struggled to register what was going on; a friend he had not seen in two years was standing in the middle of a fire fight. It only took a few seconds for his instincts to kick in, and he drew his gun, only to replace it back in its holster when he remembered the Knights' tendency of shooting anyone with a charged gun. 

A flash of silver caught Malcolm's eye, and he watched in horror as one of the Knights raised its sword and stalked over to Trip. Before he could consciously think about what he should do, he had already covered then distance and rugby tackled Trip to the ground; both nearly lost their legs.

* * *

The world blurred as something impacted Trip and took him to the ground. His phase pistol was wrenched out of his grasp and there was a sound of it being deactivated. He began to struggle in the grasp that held him firmly to the ground, and then glimpsed the claw like feet of one of the robots prowl away back into the fight; his attacker had saved his life. 

Trip twisted to sit up as his was released, and froze. He could swear the person staring down at him was Malcolm, but it couldn't be. Besides from the fact that his friend was a slave in the far distant reach of space that was the Borderlands and very likely dead, this man just didn't _look_ like Malcolm should. The clothes carried the air of a bounty hunter more than a human, with black cargo pants and boots, and a dark red t-shirt covered in strange black designs. Then there was the issue of the hair; black mingled with green, tousled with mud from the fall. However, Trip's denial only lasted a few seconds when Malcolm opened his mouth and hissed, "What are you bloody sitting there gawping for? Tell anyone else that you don't want to be decapitated to deactivate their guns. We're on holy lands, it's forbidden to fire."

Trip immediately flipped open his communicator and instructed the others. As soon as the act was carried out, the robots reversed course and zeroed in on the Klingons; the closer they got, the more they were hopelessly fired upon. Malcolm hauled Trip to his feet as the other three ran over, all wanting to get as far away as possible from this place. Archer and T'pol soon adopted the same look as Trip was currently sporting, although T'pol did it in a far more reserved, Vulcan-like manner. Archer spoke first, seemingly oblivious to the danger around them, "Malcolm..?"

"No shit." Malcolm spat out; however much he was pleased to see them, he did not want to be responsible for the capture of the Eclipse's crew, "We can talk later, but the Interplanetary Guard will be here in less than ten minutes from the nearest outpost and more of the Knights will be turning up too. Follow me."

The Enterprise team stared as Malcolm broke into a run and then followed him, trying to catch up. Trip was beginning to rethink his judgement of who this person was; the old Malcolm would never have sworn at the Captain.

* * *

Katrina raised her gun as she heard the crashing of people running through the woods. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was Malcolm, and then she frowned, "Mal, what the hell?" She was referring to the four others who accompanied him. 

"I'll explain later," Malcolm switched back to from English to Common, "They're from my old life and I can't leave them here to get captured. Please."

Katrina looked into her friend's pleading face and nodded, "If you vouch for them?"

"I do."

During this exchange, T'pol had activated a universal translator, allowing the language to snap into focus. They caught the last part from the woman, "-what you're doing."

The woman turned on them, "This is my ship, so you obey my orders. Betray Mal's trust and you're out the airlock. I'm Katrina by the way. Now get in."

T'pol raised an eyebrow in an attempt to find some logic in their situation. Upon finding none, she quickly followed her crewmates up the gangway.

* * *

The Eclipse broke from the Sanctum's atmosphere. Archer told Katrina, "Our ship should be in orbit of this planet; the Enterprise." The four of them had come to the conclusion that the thing that they fell into was a form of transporter for the use of the planet's inhabitants to travel between continents. It didn't cross their minds that the transporter was slightly more long range than that. 

Alex scanned the reading, "No ships in this solar system."

Archer frowned, turning to T'pol, "How long were we on that planet?"

"It is possible that Ensign Mayweather took the Enterprise back to Earth" Her deduction elicited a snort from Ryan.

"What are you on?"

"Excuse me?"

Before Ryan could elaborate, Alex cursed, "Shit. Cap'n, three, no, wait, bloody hell, _seven_ Covenant ships have just exited Jump. Two are breaking off."

Malcolm jumped over to his consol, "They _really _don't want to chat. They're charging weapons."

Katrina grabbed the Jump controls, "Engaging Jumpdrive!"

Malcolm instinctively grabbed the bulkhead, and then after a second's thought, grabbed the arm of the person closest to him; Trip. The Eclipse gave a lurch – sharper than usual due to the speed in which the Oribium crystals were activated. Trip would have been thrown off his feet had it not been for Malcolm, as would have T'pol if Ryan had not been standing behind her. Archer and Richmond were not so lucky, however, as both were thrown from the floor to impact a very hard wall. Despite the situation, all members of the Eclipse's crew couldn't help but smirk; it was always funny when someone travelled Jump for the first time without warning.

Turning her attention back to the task in hand, Alex turned to her consol. As expected, both Covenant ships were following. Suddenly, a high pitched alarm went off; a very bad sound. "Alex?" Katrina prompted, "What the_ hell_ is that?" A strange anomaly had appeared on the Jump navigation screen.

Alex frowned, and then realisation dawned, making her eyes widen, "It's a drop off! It fills the whole sensor scope! There's no avoiding it!"

This made absolutely no sense to anyone from the Enterprise, so Trip turned to Malcolm in hope of an answer; the fear he saw on the ex-armoury officer's face was not comforting. Malcolm asked shakily, "Katrina? Please tell me you've piloted a drop off before."

Katrina bit her lip, "Honestly? The Covenant doesn't even train people for drop offs in simulations they're so rare and deadly, so I think it would be a good idea to hold onto something." She said this over a shipwide communication so Jamie and Sara could prepare.

The drop off loomed on the screen. It was a vertical wave, cutting downwards through all of the horizontal waves that ships used for travel. The impact of the Eclipse onto the drop off wave alone could destroy it if Katrina did not turn and catch it in time, and then of course they would have to ride it and get back onto another horizontal wave. Regardless of the Enterprise's crew's lack of knowledge, even they could feel a sense of dread.

Katrina had to use all of her willpower not to close her eyes, and then the adrenalin took over, "Oh, fuck it." She muttered under her breath, pushing the Eclipse into acceleration. With one jerk of the controls, the ship's back-end bucked upwards off the wave to flip and catch the drop off. Immediately, the Eclipse began to creak and shake worse than it did when it entered the atmospheres of planets. Katrina flipped the controls one more time and instantaneously exited Jump; there was no sign of the Covenant ships. The Eclipse had exited in an empty area of space, far away from stars and their planets.

Katrina groaned and collapsed forwards onto her consol in relief; her hands were shaking. Malcolm steadied himself and clambered over to check on her, while everyone else merely slid to a sitting position on the floor (except T'pol of course, who just leaned against the wall). The ship was silent from a few minutes while everyone recovered, until Malcolm murmured, "You are way too lucky. Please don't do that again."

Katrina let out a breathy laugh, and then composed herself. She rose from the chair with Malcolm and then told Alex to go and collect Jamie and Sara and meet them in the living area. Katrina then set her sights on Archer and the others, "You ready to explain yourselves?"

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: There we have it! Mal is reunited with the others. Smile and be happy!


	10. Scars

Author Notes: Thanks for the reviews, they mean a lot.

Chapter 10: Scars

Sara leapt up onto the table to watch the actions of the four new people. They were waiting for Jamie and Alex before Katrina questioned the Starfleet personnel. Malcolm hadn't said a word since the drop off incident, and only stared intently at the three old faces and the one new one. The last two remaining crewmembers entered the living area, "Sorry I'm late, Cap'n." Jamie apologised, "But you did nothing for the crystals in that last stunt. Who the hell are they?"

Katrina folded her arms, "That's what we're about to find out."

Archer stepped forwards, and addressed her as if she was some ambassador, not an illegal cargo runner who hated authority, "I am Captain Jonathan Archer, of the Starfleet exploration ship Enterprise, from Earth. This is my science officer Commander T'pol, my chief engineer, Commander Tucker, and," he faltered slightly, his eyes flicking to Malcolm, "My Armoury officer, Lieutenant Richmond. If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to proceed to Earth as quickly as possible, and also have a private word with Lieutenant Reed."

Katrina smirked in amusement, "Earth is a _teensy_ bit out of our drive's capability. As for this Lieutenant Reed, never heard of him, sorry."

T'pol stated, "He is sitting right there." She gestured at Malcolm.

Katrina frowned for a second, and then turned to her friend, "Huh. Reed suits you, but drop the Lieutenant; I told you before, needless information." She turned back to Captain Archer, "Sorry mate, I don't let strangers take my crewmembers out of my sight, especially if they act like a Covenant general."

"He's part of Starfleet."

"He's part of my crew."

"Let's stop this before it starts shall we children?" Malcolm interrupted the two captains. "As neither of you knows exactly what is going on, I think you should just shut up for a sec. We need to sort this out before someone gets shot."

Malcolm took a deep breath; this was going to be awkward. "Basically, Katrina, these people are from my old life. I served aboard the flagship of Earth as the Armoury officer-"

Ryan couldn't keep his mouth shut, "Wait, so you mean they're not kidding? They've actually been to _Earth_?"

T'pol tilted her head, "I was not aware there were that many human colonies. Have you not been to Earth?"

"Not bloody likely. Can't even speak Eegish, or whatever the hell the Cap'n calls it."

Malcolm smiled, "English. Anyway, ever since the incident with the Orions, I never returned to Starfleet, for reasons which you must know by now. For the past year and a half, I've served on cargo ships."

Trip glared, "What do you mean? I personally would really like to know why you didn't try and hitch a ride on a ship back to Earth. We thought you were _dead_!"

Realization dawned on Alex as she suddenly put together all of the references to Earth, "You don't know, do you?"

"Know what?" Archer exploded.

Malcolm realised what Alex was getting at, and lowered his voice so as not to provoke a too big a reaction, "We are further from Earth than you have ever been. Two years ago, I was taken through a wormhole by the Pensari that bought me, just like hundreds of humans before me. It is impossible to traverse the wormhole, or even get close. We're in another galaxy."

"That's impossible." Richmond spoke for the first time, "We didn't come through any 'wormhole'; we just got thrown through an internal transporter."

Jamie offered, "According to the Sanctum's scans, you just appeared on its surface. We should wait for my sister to contact me. She might have some information as to what happened."

"We need to lie low for a bit; I can't say the Covenant liked us showing our faces again. As for you four…" Katrina turned to Malcolm, "What d'ya think?"

Malcolm tilted his head and asked Richmond, "How long have you served on the Enterprise?"

"Just over a year and a half, sir."

Malcolm wrinkled his nose, "For god's sake, don't call me sir. If you succeeded in staying alive in that time, and gained Archer's trust, then I guess you're alright." He nodded to Katrina, "We might as well keep them as passengers until we can work out how they came to be here."

"Everyone okay with that?" The crew of the Eclipse each gave a consenting nod. "Alright then. Show them some quarters, and then have them report down to the cockpit. If they want to eat then they can pitch in. Jamie?"

The engineer looked up, "Yes Cap'n?"

"We got enough spare crystals?"

Jamie grimaced, "We could run on a bare minimum, but I'll have to rig a few systems together; it'll do nothing for the engines."

"Do what you can." Jamie nodded and left, Katrina turned to the others, "Same goes for the rest of you. Alex, I need you to help me find a suitable drift once we're back online."

"Whoa!" Archer stepped quickly towards Katrina. Immediately, Ryan had levelled a gun to his face, making him freeze.

Malcolm sighed, "Ry, put the gun down; he's not a Nexritu." Grudgingly, Ryan complied. Malcolm made a gesture, "You were saying?"

Jonathan looked thrown for a second, then cleared his throat, "Don't we get a say in this? We'd really like to know what's going on."

Katrina rolled her eyes in impatience, "Look, come to the cockpit and I'll explain, or I'll get someone else to. Right now, I'm busy." Without leaving any more room for protest, she strode out.

The rest of the crew dispersed, leaving Malcolm and Sara to guide their new additions to their quarters. Trip nudged Malcolm, asking a question that had been nagging on his mind, "Um, Malcolm? What did you do to your hair?"

Malcolm smirked, "I blame her." He gestured to Sara who was scuttling up the ladder.

Sara twisted to face them, "More interesting now though, ain't it?"

Malcolm rolled his eyes, "Get up the bloody ladder."

Sara disappeared onto the next level, her voice floating down, "Watch your mouth!"

Malcolm sighed and climbed up after her. Archer turned to Trip, "I can't believe that's Malcolm."

"I dunno Cap'n; I always had the impression that if I wasn't his commanding officer, he might have acted different round me. And he has been away two years."

"I know Trip, but what happened in those two years? We need to talk to him alone."

* * *

"I think I'd know if someone was there, Mal; I never let anyone copy my act." Ryan lent against the wall, observing his friend checking the cargo hold for the fourth time. When Malcolm ignored him, he continued, "You're gonna have to face them sometime. I doubt the Cap'n will serve you meals down here, or let you sleep down here."

Malcolm didn't look up, "Who says I'm avoiding them?"

"Even the Vulcan knows you're avoiding them! And they're dense."

Malcolm smirked, "Nice to know you hold aliens in such high regard."

"Hey, all I need to know is how far I can push them and whether they'll kill me or not."

"Don't you have work to do?"

"Don't you?" Ryan shot back.

Malcolm gave up his checks and gave Ryan a long suffering look, "Tell Katrina I'll be up for dinner."

"Sure." Ryan grinned to himself as he watched Malcolm continue his checks, "If you find any more of that lovely blue goo, give me a shout."

Malcolm showed Ryan's retreating back a considerably uncivilised gesture; he'd never live that one down.

* * *

Dinner was awkward – for Archer and Trip that was. T'pol stoutly ignored the tension, while Richmond had nothing to be particularly awkward about. Malcolm followed T'pol's example and had his back to the crew of Enterprise, talking to Jamie. The rest of the Eclipse's crew acted normally. As soon as possible, Malcolm rose and turned to Katrina, "I'm gonna get some sleep, wake me if there's anything wrong. Night guys."

Trip watched him go, and muttered to Captain Archer, "I'm gonna go talk to him." He excused himself and left the room.

Malcolm had told them all whose quarters belonged to who earlier, so Trip knew where to look. There was no bell, so he thumped once on the door. A few seconds, and then the door slid open. Malcolm stood in the doorway, topless; he didn't look surprised, "I figured it'd be you first."

Trip didn't answer; he couldn't take his eyes off Malcolm. As Malcolm turned away into his room, Trip's breath caught. All across his friend's chest and back were streaks and channels, a complex interwoven web of white scarring; someone's legacy. Malcolm scowled and grabbed a t-shirt from the floor, yanking it on. Trip stepped into the mess, allowing the door to shut behind him. Malcolm sat on the bed, not caring that his boots were still on, leaned against the wall and gestured for Trip to sit, "It was hardly a picnic, you know."

"Mal, I'm sorry."

"Why? You don't know what life is like here, you weren't to know."

"Yeah, but your back-"

"It healed a long time ago Trip. With any luck, the bastard got stabbed in the back."

"I tried to find you, ya know. But no one thought you were alive, and after three months when Jon signed your death certificate-"

Malcolm let out a bitter laugh, "Nice to know how much faith he had in me. When did you..?"

Trip fidgeted, "Not until Shran told me about the Pensari a while later. I always had a hope you were alive, but I guess I began to realise that your chances of survival were small."

Malcolm nodded, picking at a loose thread on the bedspread. Trip cleared his throat, "But that's all over now, right? As soon as we figure out how we got here, you can return home, back to Enterprise, and Earth."

Malcolm refused to meet his old commander's eyes, "I haven't decided yet. I have a new life here, whereas if I return, I'll have to build a whole new one."

Trip looked at him incredulously, "What do you mean? You gotta come back!"

"Why?" Malcolm remained calm, while Trip looked hurt and his face showed the beginnings of anger.

"What d'ya mean _why_? We're your friends! We've known you longer than these people!"

"Not necessarily. You've been my colleagues for longer than they have, but I wouldn't say you've known me longer."

Trip was lost for words for a minute, then, "I don't believe I'm hearing this!" His voice rose, "You have to-"

Malcolm stood up sharply, "Shut up."

Trip was about to protest, until he recognised Malcolm's calculating look. He watched as the ex-armoury officer drew his sidearm and strode to the door. The door slid open and Malcolm was pointing his gun in the face of the spy. Trip was shocked when he saw that Malcolm was threatening a small human girl. "Mal! What the hell are you doing? It's just a kid!"

Malcolm didn't lower or discharge his gun, "Move." He hissed at the girl; she didn't blink or say a word. Trip could only watch in confusion as Malcolm shoved the girl down to the level below.

* * *

Katrina was talking to T'pol when Malcolm strode in, followed by Trip. He shoved forward a small figure and kept his gun steady to her head. Captain Archer frowned, "Trip, what…"

Ryan stood up and also raised his gun, glaring with contempt at the small girl. Sara jumped off of her chair, "Echo!"

"Don't move Sara." Ryan spat out.

In outrage, Alex rose and yelled, "Ryan! Malcolm! Lower your guns! You are pointing them at a harmless child! Stop being so stupid!"

Ryan glared, "I told you there was something weird about her! We left her at the monastery, so how the hell did she get on here before us? I didn't trust her then, so I sure as hell don't now."

"You stowed away and we accepted you! Why is she any different?"

"Stop this right now!" Katrina shouted, "Ryan, lower your gun. I want everyone except Malcolm and Echo sat down. Now!"

Everyone complied. Katrina switched to English so the girl wouldn't understand, "What do you reckon?"

"Why should we trust her? She was listening outside my quarters, Katrina, and she sneaked back on. What if us finding her wasn't an accident?"

"Mal, no one would bother going to those lengths. Maybe she _is_ just scared and alone. We've taken in enough strays over time, what's one more?"

"Katrina…"

"I know. But we can't do anything about it now. She _is_ just a kid Mal; we know that from the last med tests Alex did. For now, she stays."

Malcolm grudgingly lowered his gun, then spat in Ri'kyan, a language only he and Katrina knew from their time on the Hephaestus. They only knew the basics, but it was enough to get his point across, "_If she tries anything, I will shoot her._"

Katrina nodded in acceptance.

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: How did you like this chapter? Please let me know your thoughts!


	11. The Butterfly Effect

Author Notes: After an appalling amount of time, I'm back! I apologise for the huge time gap, but I've been very busy. I have actually now written all of the remaining chapters to this story, so I will be updating frequently, depending on how quick my betaing is. Thank you for your support.

Chapter 11: The Butterfly Effect

The air on the Eclipse was constantly charged, with frequent confrontations between Ryan and Alex, Katrina and Archer, and Malcolm and Archer; even Sara joined in the shouting every now and again. Jamie was too busy with the engines to get involved, and everyone else had the sense to avoid these warring people if they could help it. Unusually, this time it was Alex and Katrina who were arguing, "I am not wasting resources on them!"

"But they need to have injections! It's law!"

"No Alex, it's Covenant law, which last time I checked, doesn't apply on _my_ ship."

"We don't want to catch something off them."

"We've all had injections, so how can we?"

"They could infect each other!"

"I don't give a damn!"

This argument went along these lines for a good ten more minutes, before Malcolm had finally had enough, "Shut up, both of you! You're giving me a headache! Katrina, give them the bloody medicine, it's hardly expensive; most of it's black market stuff anyway."

Jonathan, who was also in the room at the time, snapped his attention back to the crewmembers in the living quarters, "What? My crew aren't taking anything."

Before Katrina could start on Archer, Malcolm waved his hand dismissively, "They're just inoculations and vaccinations. I s'pose it's our version of the decon chamber. They've been in use for centuries and perfectly harmless."

Thankfully, that was the end to the matter. Unfortunately, Ryan had started up a screaming match with Sara again down the corridor, so Malcolm's head didn't improve.

* * *

"So, what's this one for again?" Trip eyes the hypospray warily.

"Jurana Influenza." Alex examined the bottle, "Damn, there's not enough, I used up the last on T'pol. Mal, do we have another batch?"

Malcolm was currently on speaking terms with Trip, who, now the initial shock was over, was settling down into life on the Eclipse quite well. He had also accepted his old friend's reasons for not promising to return to Enterprise. Malcolm produced another small bottle, which Alex measured out into the hypospary. A small hiss indicated the discharge of the implement, and Trip was done.

"Alright, that's everyone."

Trip frowned, "What about that kid, Echo?"

Malcolm's face hardened, and Alex's face turned sour, "_Luckily_, I gave her the injections last time she was here."

Sensing that he had just brought the mood of the room right down, Trip smiled his thanks and dragged Malcolm out of the med bay.

* * *

"Where's Trip?" Captain Archer frowned as the extended crew sat down to lunch.

Richmond shrugged, "I haven't seen Commander Tucker since this morning, sir."

Malcolm sighed, "He's probably in his quarters - I'll go get him."

Malcolm got up and, giving a wide berth to the silent Echo, went out and clambered up to the sleeping level. "Trip?" He banged on the door, "Trip? D'you want food or not?"

Alex's voice floated up from below, "He's probably just sleeping off the effects of this morning."

Malcolm, however, didn't agree. He'd been injected with the drug before, and it hardly had any after effects. Quickly punching in the Captain's access code, Malcolm stepped into Trip's quarters. "Shit!" Malcolm knelt down and shook his friend. Trip was unconscious, shaking and bathed in sweat, "Trip? Trip! Can you hear me? Alex! Get up here now!"

The ship's navigation and medical officer soon appeared and stood momentarily frozen in the doorway before jumping to work, "We need to make him as comfortable as possible, there's no point trying to move him. The symptoms are Jurana, but…"

"Jurana? He's unconscious! Jamie never reacted like this when he had it!"

"It's possible that he already had a virus, but I scanned him." Alex frowned, "I need you to get my stuff, and if anyone asks what's going on, tell them but for everyone's sake, don't let them come up here."

Malcolm nodded and shot off, his worry building.

* * *

Everyone except Alex sat in silence in the living area, waiting for news on Trip. Alex had already confirmed her suspicions of Jurana, but it appeared to be some sort of mutated strain; not contagious, but ten times worse. Those who didn't know Trip well had no idea what to say to those who did. Archer sighed and muttered, "I can't sit here anymore." He strode out of the room…

…and onto an observation deck of a Federation starship. "Oh, come on!" Archer vented his frustration on a bulkhead.

"I would rather you didn't do that Captain Archer."

"Daniels!" Archer whirled around to be faced with the annoying little man. "What is it this time?"

"I'm here to make sure that the timeline remains as it should."

"Why wouldn't it? Isn't your war over?"

"Yes, but as you know, the race that manipulated the Xindi changed the timeline. Do you remember when I tried to persuade you to send someone else to destroy the Xindi weapon?"

"Yes, you wanted me to send someone like Malcolm, someone who wouldn't be important in the future."

"Correct. Apparently, Lieutenant Reed's significance in the future depends entirely on one event in that is near at hand."

Archer frowned, "Speak English, Daniels."

"In the original timeline, there was no Xindi attack. Consequently, Commander Tucker's sister did not die because there was no probe. As such, there was no tension between Tucker and Reed's friendship, and it grew stronger. When Reed fell through, it was a simple decision for him two years later to return with you, and the timeline continued as it should. Now that the timeline has been altered, this will not be the case. It is _essential_ that Lieutenant Reed returns with you, and Commander Tucker is the only one who will influence his decision for good."

"What will happen if he doesn't?"

"It is not clear. However, one of the possible paths that time could take will result in the enslavement or destruction of our galaxy; all out war."

"Well, all I need to do is tell Malcolm-"

"That will make the situation worse. Your relationship with him could escalate the problem."

Archer sighed in frustration, "How will one decision affect all this?"

"The smallest thing can make the biggest differences."

"I don't have time for your crap, my best friend could die."

It was Daniels' turn to be annoyed, "Why do you think I brought you here? To tell you your doom could be near at hand but hey, you can't do anything about it?" Jonathan gave Daniels an odd look, having not heard that kind of sarcasm from the man before, "Tell Alexandria to analyse the vaccine she gave him, there's something wrong with it."

"Thank you!" Archer turned, and stumbled out into the corridors of the Eclipse. He then ran to find Alex.

* * *

Malcolm hovered over Alex as she shoved a sample under the microscope, "It would explain why it only affected Trip; the others all got another batch-"

"Alex! Shut up and get on with it! Please!" Malcolm prompted.

"I'm working as fast as I can!" Alex snapped in reply. "I need to work out what's in this. Just go and keep an eye on Trip."

Malcolm obeyed, and returned to Trip's quarters to find Archer and T'pol already there. Uncomfortable with being in such a compact space with two people who he had never been close to, Malcolm knelt down near Trip and tried to get his friend to drink some water. He was still unconscious and his fever hadn't broken.

He didn't know how long the four old crewmates remained in silence, but when Alex finally rushed in with the hypospray, the tension seemed to dissipate. "Will that work?" Concern laced T'pol's normally neutral tone.

"We'll find out, won't we?"

"Alex…"

"Look, I've done the best I can. We'll know how it takes in a couple of hours. Call me when there's change."

Alex smiled weakly and left, leaving Archer, T'pol and Malcolm to fall back into their silence.

* * *

Malcolm relaxed against the wall of Trip's quarters, talking with his friend. It was a week since Trip had begun recovering and it was the second day that the Eclipse had been docked in a drift for repairs. "So, not that I'm bored of the company, but where's everyone else?"

Malcolm grinned evilly, "Katrina's showing them around the drift."

"Why are you grinning like that?"

"They're in for a culture shock. The reason we're here is so we're not noticed – I think others may have the same idea."

Trip looked alarmed, "What? But nothing'll happen, right?"

"Don't worry, Katrina alone is scary enough, but add Ryan and they'll be fine."

"So," Trip used his elbows to sit up in bed. Malcolm made to help, but he was waved away, "I'm getting better."

"You were saying?"

"Yeah, have you thought any more about what'll happen when we go home? Will you come with us?"

"_If _you find a way home."

"Stop being so pessimistic. And you're avoiding the question."

Malcolm smiled softly, "I miss Earth." He said simply. Although he wouldn't admit it to his friend, ever since the four members of Starfleet had taken up residence on the Eclipse, Malcolm had found his old habits creeping back into his life; his room was far more tidy that it had ever been, and more than once he had almost let slip a 'Captain' or 'sir' when taking to Archer.

"Is that a yes?"

"We'll see." Trip grinned triumphantly; the answer was good enough for him.

* * *

Malcolm frowned as he passed the med bay. A shadow caught his eye and he wanted to investigate. "Ryan? What are you doing? It's three in the morning!"

"What are you doing?" Malcolm sighed. After all this time, Ryan was still defensive.

"I'm going to get a drink." He paused, waiting, "Well?"

"I'm checking this." Ryan held up a small bottle and shook it slightly. "Is it just me, or is it weird that a completely sealed batch of vaccine got contaminated."

"Most of our stuff isn't exactly legitimate, Ryan."

"Yeah, but this was, I bought it on Durai. They're legal system is so strict, no one would dare to get at the medical program."

Malcolm sighed, "What are you getting at?"

"Someone is sabotaging this crew. You say you trust those four upstairs and the actual crew of this ship wouldn't dream of doing anything. Who does that leave?"

"Come on Ryan. I know the kid's weird, but why the hell would she try to poison us?"

"You know full well Trip would've died if your ex-captain hadn't had a vision or whatever. I honestly think we need to watch our backs." Before Malcolm could continue the conversation, Ryan strode out.

Malcolm groaned and leaned against the wall. This rift between the crew was getting out of hand. He also couldn't help feeling that perhaps Ryan was being a little too paranoid – no one else seemed to think Echo was dangerous.

"Urgh. This is twisted." Malcolm sighed, burying his face in his hands. Events had escalated to the point that he didn't even know what _he_ thought anymore.

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: What do you think?


	12. Echoes of the Past

WARNING: If torture upsets or disturbs you, do not read this chapter, because it will be quite graphic.

Chapter 12: Echoes of the Past

"Captain!" Alex called from her consol. "We've got an incoming transmission."

Trip walked into the cockpit with Malcolm, "Who likes you guys enough to give you a call?"

Malcolm frowned, "Not many people. Actually, no one. Alex, how did they find us?"

"It's encrypted on so many levels, so they've just sent it out on an open wave. Seriously, we've just stumbled upon it – you need the cipher to decrypt this."

"So what's so interesting?" Katrina poked her head over Trip's shoulder, having come from the living area.

"We've got the cipher."

Trip raised his hand, "Am I the only one who's lost here?"

"The computer's automatically deciphering the message. I think Jamie installed the program, because I certainly didn't, and it's not an original feature of the ship."

Katrina pressed the comm. button, "Jamie, what have you been doing to my ship?"

Alex suddenly smiled, "It's a message from Laura!"

Trip still looked lost, "Who?"

Malcolm sighed good-naturedly, "I'll explain in a sec." He hollered down the hall, not bothering to use the communications, "Jamie!"

"What did I do this time?" The engineer in question appeared from seemingly nowhere.

"Your sister. She's contacted us; want a read?" Malcolm stepped out of the way so Jamie could get past.

A quick scan of the document caused his confusion to turn to curiosity, "She's found out about how you guys got here. You came through a device called a Linlr, which from what she can work out from the records is an intergalactic transporter made by the same civilisation who built the Monastic Knights." A smile grew on his face, "It's two-way; you can return home!"

* * *

Malcolm sat slouched in the pilot chair, watching the stars. Katrina and Jamie were explaining to the Enterprise crew about Laura's discovery, and he had no wish to be there. Ever since Trip's near death experience, Captain Archer had been giving him looks, as if he really wanted to say something, but didn't know how. Right now, his mind was in such a jumble that he didn't want to spur Archer into finally asking the inevitable question of what he would do. He could hear the voices growing in volume from excitement as they floated down the corridor. Malcolm sighed, shifting into a curled up position, drawing his knees up; he honestly had no idea what he should do. He hadn't realised how much he had missed Trip's company and easy going nature, and the uniforms that the others still insisted on wearing had made his mind float back to Enterprise, and the others who still remained there, like Hoshi and Travis. And yet there was still the previous certainty that he truly belonged on the Eclipse.

He was jerked out of his thoughts by a short beep indicating yet another incoming message. Groaning, Malcolm rearranged his limbs and lightly tapped the pilot controls to receive the message. It came in fuzzy and disjointed: _This is Captain Duretz of the Covenant Inje class ship Falore. Our Jumpdrive is overloading and we require immediate assistance. Please respond._

The message was on a loop, not directed at any particular ship, so it could have been years old. Nevertheless, the Inje class were a military transport design still in use with the Covenant today. Malcolm activated the cloaking device, and switched the sensors to long range, focusing on Covenant signatures. Sure enough, data immediately began streaming in of a ship in the near area, within reach of impulse. Sensors also showed the remnants of particle dispersion in the area, indicating that the ship had only recently exited Jump. "I so don't need this right now." Malcolm muttered, getting up and running through the ship to Katrina, who was helping Archer make plans for times and such. Jamie was showing Trip a device that would send a beacon that would attract Enterprise when they reached the other side.

"Katrina, you're needed – _now_." The urgency in Malcolm's voice made everyone look around.

Frowning, both of his captains stood up and followed him as he returned to the cockpit and played the message for them to hear. "I've activated the cloak, and we've already got the signature mask in place, so they shouldn't know we're here."

Archer frowned, "What do you mean? Aren't you going to help them?"

For the first time in two years, Malcolm felt as if he were back on the Enterprise. He looked away, shifting uncomfortably. He desperately wanted to just run out of there, away from everything. Katrina saved him from speaking, which was a good thing as he really didn't think his voice would have held steady, "They're Covenant – we help them, they arrest us for our troubles."

"But these specs say it's a transport."

"A _military _transport."

"Designed to transport the families of military personnel to the posting of a loved one."

Katrina snorted, "_Loved one_? Do you actually practice your speeches in the mirror?"

Malcolm wrapped his arms around himself as if he were cold. This argument was making him feel almost physically sick. Any second now, one of them would ask him what he thought, just to stop the argument, and he would have to choose a captain to agree with.Sure enough, Archer turned to him, "Malcolm? What do you think we should do?"

Although he had been expecting it, he was far from prepared. He took a subconscious step back, "I…I don't know, sir." He stammered, and then froze; realising the automatic way of addressing his old captain had slipped out. Both people in front of him stared in shock, their eyes boring into him, "I'm sorry." The apology was meant in both senses, to both people. He backed away, and practically ran out of the cockpit, knocking past Trip on his way.

"What the hell was that about?" Trip asked them both, worrying marring his features.

"Malcolm called him 'sir'." Katrina sighed, and then glared at Archer, "This is all your fault. He's been jumpy ever since you came on board!"

"No." Jonathan argued, "All this shows is that he might be inclining towards leaving with us, and you don't like it."

Katrina's expression changed, this time to one of intense worry, "Malcolm hasn't called anyone sir since we were slaves. Even on the Hephaestus, a ship we served on voluntarily for half a year, he called our superiors by their titles, never sir. Whatever he says, he's never gotten over it." She sighed, running her fingers through her hair, "Alright, you win, but everyone carries guns."

Archer frowned at the rapid change of subject, not quite following. Katrina rolled her eyes, "How many life signs are on the transport?"

Jonathan smiled weakly, and set to work out how the operation would go. Before Katrina moved to the cockpit, she fixed Trip with a look that clearly instructed him to find Malcolm sharpish. He didn't need to be told.

* * *

Malcolm curled up behind some of the larger crates in the cargo hold, shaking from both the cold and the retained emotion. His mind darted in all directions, refusing to focus on one clear train of thought. He didn't hear the two male voices from above; both spoken in very worried tones.

Trip walked quietly between the crates, following Jamie's advice as to where he might find Malcolm. He caught slight of a flash of green and, not wanting to startle the man, spoke quietly, "Mal? It's me. Wanna talk?"

Trip took the lack of response as an invite, and slid down behind the crate to sit down. Malcolm's eyes were far away, unfocused, and yet he seemed to gravitate to the warmth of the new form beside him, as he leaned slightly against the larger man. They sat like that for a short while, until Trip felt Malcolm shift slightly, and saw him blink owlishly, as if waking up but still not fully aware. "Trip? How long have you been here?"

Trip smiled crookedly, "Long enough for my leg to go dead."

"Sorry."

"You apologise too much. You gonna be okay?"

Malcolm let his head drop slightly, "This is so messed up. I don't think I can handle it anymore."

"Don't let anyone pressure you. Whatever they say, the decision you've got to make is gonna be permanent, so it's gotta be right."

"How do you choose between two completely different people?"

Trip frowned, and he suddenly saw what was eating Malcolm up so much. The selfless idiot was trying to make his decision by who needed him most, not what he wanted. "You don't." Malcolm frowned, and looked up to meet Trip's eyes, "Choose what you want. If the whole authority thing made you react like you did, then maybe this place is for you, but if you miss Earth and your home even more, then come with us."

Malcolm gave a hollow laugh, "How do you make things sound simple?"

"It's a gift. By the way, Katrina's gone with Jon's advice; we're going for the transport. The docking clamps should be ready to go in a few minutes, so we'd better get up there." He rose and held out a hand, "You gonna be okay?" he repeated.

Malcolm didn't answer, but smiled grateful thanks for the company, and took the proffered hand.

* * *

Malcolm was quiet as he stood at his consol; making slight adjustments to aid Katrina's manoeuvring. Archer watched from the door, while T'Pol had taken Alex's position so the doctor could prepare for possible casualties with the help of Lieutenant Richmond. Trip was with Jamie in the Engineering, while Sara and Ryan had been left watching Echo in the living area.

The whole effort of rescuing someone was entirely new to the majority of the Eclipse's crew, so everyone was on edge as their captain positioned her ship up to the transport. Malcolm was watching the readouts of the ship by chance when the data changed. As they came within metres of the hull, all readings that agreed with Duretz's statement of an overloading Jumpdrive disappeared, to be replaced with scan data consistent with that of a build of energy in the hull. "Katrina! Pull out, it's-"

Malcolm didn't get any further in his warning, as five shuddering thuds hit their starboard side as grappling hooks took hold. The jerk that followed threw everyone off, and Malcolm was pitched into darkness.

* * *

The lack of oxygen reaching Malcolm's lungs was the first sensation he was aware of, the second being a hard pressure around his nose and mouth. Full consciousness shortly followed as his eyes snapped open and he began to thrash against his assailant. This process was severely hindered by the fact the he was bound to a pipe and hanging from the ceiling. "Had a nice sleep?" The voice made him freeze and a chill ran through him as the voice grated against him. For the first time, he realised that the darkness hadn't shifted since he had opened his eyes, and, as he blinked, he felt the coarse blindfold rub against his face.

Malcolm decided not to reply, instead listening for sounds and voices that might tell him where everyone else was. He fought to control his breathing as his mind strayed back to _that _room which had been brought to the fore of his mind earlier in the day. Malcolm flinched unwillingly as he felt the hot breath of the other man on his neck, "Do you realise how much trouble we have gone through to find you? We even had to hire one of them weird Switches. But now we have you." He traced a line from Malcolm's temple, around behind his ear with the tip of a knife, causing blood to trickle out.

"And who exactly is this 'we'?" Malcolm ground out, by now having come to the conclusion that this was not Covenant protocol. Back on the Eclipse, he'd expected Raiders or salvage rats, but these people sounded more like bounty hunters, or people with a personal vendetta.

His head was roughly pulled back as The Man grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, "I didn't say you could talk. I'm only just getting started with our little chat." He released his hold, allowing Malcolm to shake his head to clear the dizziness.

The close presence of The Man left for a minute, making Malcolm feel even more vulnerable than before, and then the knife returned. It was the surprise, rather than the pain, that made Malcolm cry out as the blade cut a gash across his bare stomach from his ribs to his hip; the cut was not deep enough to do permanent damage, but it was enough to cause Malcolm's breathing to sharpen into more ragged, panicked gasps. It had been so long since his life had called on the possibility of an interrogation that his mind was vastly unprepared.

The presence left for a second time, and this time, Malcolm listened carefully for the light footsteps to make themselves known. By this, he was given a few seconds warning before a rough hand grabbed his side, causing his breath to catch as the skin around the cut grew taut. Around his waist was strapped, as far a he could tell, some kind of fabric belt, with tiny metal fibres on the inside, judging by the small pricks he felt against his skin. The hot breath could be felt against his ear, as The Man breathed, "You're going to pay for your crimes, I'll see that you do."

Malcolm inwardly shivered, and then froze as his ears picked up a small whirling sound, which soon turned into a crackling. The realization of the situation hit him full force, and he renewed his struggling, all of his muscles tensing. The machine released its charge into his body, setting every nerve ending on fire. He couldn't do anything but scream. The charge was over in seconds, but the pain remained. And then the machine was charging again, and releasing its electricity. Malcolm had no idea how long this went on for.

* * *

Katrina was pissed. She hated cells. They made her fidgety, jumpy, and downright violent. Of course, the last reaction was probably a good thing considering their situation. She had woken up an hour ago after having had the lovely experience of being gassed. T'Pol and Jamie had had the same experience, while Ryan and Sara had been knocked out by a flare grenade. Richmond and Alex had taken the conventional route, and been knocked out and shot after shooting rounds at their attackers. Thankfully, no one in their cell was badly hurt. That still didn't explain where Malcolm, Trip, Archer and Echo were though.

"It doesn't make sense though," frowned Jamie, "There's no particular link between the four. Does anyone know what happened?"

T'Pol sat crossed-legged against a wall, "I believe Mr Reed was knocked out in the initial attack, but in the smoke caused, no one saw. I lost track of the Captain, and ended up in the cargo bay."

"So he could still be on the Eclipse then?" asked Sara hopefully.

Jamie shook his head, "No love, there's no way they would've missed him; the cockpit's too open. Trip was with me for a while, but we got split up. I didn't get very far when I met up with T'Pol and the Cap'n in the cargo hold, and then the whole level filled with gas."

Richmond shrugged, "We met them first; didn't see anyone else before we woke up here."

Sara curled up against her sister, "Echo was with us when they threw in the grenade. She should be here!"

Ryan snorted, "Oh come off it, midget. How do you think they found us? To stage something like that they would have had to _know_ we were there. I'd bet my gun that little bitch gave us away."

Sara opened her mouth to argue, when Katrina spat, "Shut up, the lot of you. Ryan's right, Echo's with them, no question. Mal got caught with us, but…" She trailed off, and then shook her head to gather her thoughts, "From this point, we assume Archer and Trip are free and our only hope."

Jamie gave his captain an odd look, while T'Pol raised an eyebrow, "What has made you come to this conclusion?"

"Trip and Archer would have no more value to these guys than you or Richmond; if they had been caught, they'd be here. Echo, well, Mal and Ryan have been on edge around the kid for ages, and she's brought too many mishaps our way for it to be a coincidence."

Alex frowned, "And Malcolm? Why is he any different?"

Katrina didn't answer. Jamie, on the other hand paled, "Shit. Not good. We've got to get out!"

Katrina shook her head, "They've barely tampered with those locks. I doubt even you could hotwire the door to open; they're still Covenant standard."

"But Cap'n-"

"We have to trust Trip and Archer." Katrina's eyes betrayed any conviction that her statement may have held; she was worried.

Alex looked between the two, "What are you two on about?"

Katrina curled up, mirroring Sara's position, "Didn't you see their faces? The tattoos are identical."

Alex swallowed as she caught on, "But why Mal? We were all there!"

Jamie scrubbed his face, "We were wrong. Those guys weren't from a small clan, they must've been on some kind of initiation mission; they were all young. Mal disposed of the bodies inside the ship once we'd salvaged everything. I wore protective gloves to deal with my work, the Cap'n never bothered to go aboard and you stayed in your quarters. Mal's fingerprints would have been the only evidence of us left behind, and if this clan is as big as I'm beginning to think, they're gonna be royally pissed off."

"_Fingerprints?_" Richmond snorted, "Come on, that's 20th century stuff!"

Katrina glared at him, "Maybe for you, on your shiny, happy planet, but here it's enough to spur on a revenge attack, and Raiders are damn tetchy about stuff like that."

Jamie ran a hand through his tangled hair, "So we'd better hope that captain of yours is good."

* * *

Trip sat contorted, his breathing barely audible. Next to him, lay an unconscious Archer. They were in the access tubes that Sara had shown him on his first day. They connected every room, and right now, they were hiding in the space just above the brig. Unfortunately, what was an excellent crawlspace for a young girl was a very claustrophobic space for two grown men. Two hours ago, the Eclipse had been attacked by a motley group of humans, with the odd alien thrown in. Trip had only just escaped being shot, and had managed to drag Jonathan into the tube under the kitchen space moments before one of their attackers had come to look. All he had been able to hope while time passed was that everyone was still alive, his friend would wake up soon and that the pirates, or whatever they were, would be too dumb to think of scanning the ship for life signs once they'd caught everyone else. A groaning jerked Trip out of his thoughts, "Cap'n? Jon? You waking up?"

"Trip?" Archer blinked, and then tried to sit up, "What happened?"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"I don't know. I was coming up on the living quarters when I saw those humans throw something in and turn away. The last thing I remember is a flash of light."

Trip nodded, "I dragged you from there into here. As far as I can tell, they got everyone else. It seemed like they made an effort to take everyone alive."

"Slave trade?" Jon suggested.

"Then why are we still attached?"

"Well, we're not helping just sitting here. Come on." Trip watched as Archer twisted to get out of the nearest exit. From there, he followed until they were out of the brig and into the main corridor. No one was guarding.

First, the pair made their way up to their quarters, where they retrieved their phasers. Neither had gotten used to the blasters that Malcolm and the others seemed to prefer. Besides, this way, they had the stun option. Before they went back down, Trip went into Malcolm's quarters, where he knew the ex-armoury officer kept a portable scanner. They made their way back down to the opening through which the crew of the Eclipse could disembark, or attach to other vessels while in space. One guard leaned casually against a bulkhead. Trip aimed, and took the guard out silently, "One down," He muttered.

* * *

Malcolm heaved another cough, grimacing as blood once again came up into his mouth. The Man, his torturer, had been gone for quite some time, and had turned the machine off, apparently preferring to watch the torture. What really made Malcolm feel lost was the fact that this wasn't real torture. He wasn't asked any questions and there was seemingly no purpose. All it seemed to be was painful. Having not seen The Man's face, he couldn't even fathom what he had done to offend.

As he drifted in and out of consciousness, he heard two voices, The Man, and that of a young girl. For a horrifying second, Malcolm thought that the bastard was doing the same to the others, including Sara, and then he realised that the voice was all wrong. He concentrated, and listened, "When do I get my money?"

"You'll get it, Switch, like I said. But first, I want to finish my business."

"No good. I've been in this shitty body too long. I'm fed up of being half any decent height. I don't need it any more."

"So switch with one of the others. I ain't got no need for them."

"They're too well known by the Covenant. I want an alien. Humans are boring to be for long periods of time."

As the conversation progressed, Malcolm came to a sickening realisation. It was Echo, _talking _with The Man. And not only that, by the sounds of it, she wasn't even a human child. She was some kind of hired, body switching mercenary. He'd known there was something weird about her, but seriously, that was just plain creepy. As Malcolm continued with his detached train of thought, he began to also detach himself from the pain. He knew that wasn't good, that it likely meant he was going into shock, but at that moment, he really didn't give a damn. Unfortunately, the feeling didn't last for long.

A sharp jab in the side of his neck, shortly followed by the horrible feeling of a thick substance entering his body, brought back all sensations of pain. He immediately began shivering and coughing as his veins flowed with what felt like liquid fire. Uncontrollable tears soaked into the blindfold as his mind struggled to blackout, but the drug wouldn't allow it. The horrible, calloused hand stoked the side of his head, causing Malcolm to jerk away, "It's okay." The voice was soft, yet it only made Malcolm's emotions worsen, "I won't let the nightmares get you."

The hand tightened on the area of skin where the drug had entered, causing a sob to escape. The voice became softer as it came closer to Malcolm's ear, "You still haven't understood yet. So let me help you." The hand released its grip, and then moved down Malcolm's back. A finger traced every scar, every laceration made an age ago. He arched his back in panic, but the contact remained, "Whoever did this was an artist, and yet your skin is painting over their beautiful work. This must be remedied."

The finger moved away, and then the belt was removed. Malcolm gasp hitched in his throat as the burnt skin came away with the fabric. The Man threw the belt onto the floor, and then Malcolm heard the sound of metal against leather as some sort of blade was unsheathed. Blocking out the pain as much as possible, he tried to prepare himself by attempting to make his muscles relax. He felt the cold of the blade's flat surface being pressed against his cheek, and then it was gone. Malcolm screamed as the blade was plunged into his lower back, just under his ribs. It was serrated, and when The Man pulled it out, Malcolm could almost hear his flesh tearing. Finally, The Man placed the jagged edge of the blade on one of the lower scars, pressed until blood flowed, and began slowly dragging it up the white indentation in Malcolm's skin. He had never wished so much for darkness in his life.

* * *

Trip and Archer worked their way systematically through the ship. Every time they managed to knock one of the pirate guys out, they locked them in one of the many quarters. They had had no luck in gleaming any information as to where any of the others were, but just as they were about to turn back and try and see if anything on the Eclipse could help them, they heard voices around the corner, "-and it ain't right. My brother was on that raid. Why should he get the fun?"

"Well, he's the Cap'n, ain't he? And his son was one of the ones who got caught by the scythe grenade from what we could gather. 'Course he's gonna be pissed."

"Any idea what he's gonna want done with this lot?"

"Nah. I heard the Switch might want one of them, but we ain't got no evidence to say they were in on it. That one up-deck, he's the one that needs to pay."

Trip twisted around to look at his captain and frowned, jerking his head in the direction of the corridor. Archer nodded, and held up three fingers, dropping them one by one. The two opened fire, easily dealing with the conversing pirates. They ran up, and Trip quickly rummaged for the keycard around one of their necks. He swiped it down, and the door opened with a satisfying whoosh. Inside, were the rest of the Eclipse's current crew, minus Echo and Malcolm.

Katrina rose and smiled a cold smile, "Never lost faith, mate." She quickly stepped out, and stripped the guards of weapons, handing them out. Thankfully, their captors were paranoid enough to carry multiple weapons. They dragged the unconscious bodies of the guards into the holding cell, and then Katrina stood up and gave everyone their orders, "Jamie, you go with Richmond and T'Pol. Find as many explosives as you can and place them round the ship; undiscovered. Ryan, Alex, take Sara back to the Eclipse. Secure it and prepare med bay. Archer, Trip, you're with me. We're going to get Malcolm."

There was something in the petite woman's jaw line that made Trip suddenly very worried. In everything that had happened, all the times he had seen her pissed off, he had never seen her like this. It made him wonder if Malcolm had been brushing over his time as a slave even more than he had originally suspected. As she drew a very nasty looking dagger, and holstered her gun, he was glad he wasn't one of the other guys.

* * *

Malcolm's back was a river of blood. He had long passed the stage of coherent thought; all that lived in his brain now was the constant pain. He didn't even notice when the knife lifted from his skin. The footsteps, which had been so quiet before, reverberated around his head as they moved away, and then returned. A hand grabbed his hair, and forced his head backwards painfully. And then, at long last, the blindfold was removed.

Malcolm's eyes burned with the intense light, causing him to jam them shut. His head was released, allowing him to relax his neck muscles and accustom his eyes. The hand reached up and cupped his chin to raise his head in an action so familiar, it caused one last spurt of adrenaline to be released into his body, and he began to kick and thrash one more. The false energy was soon spent, however, causing the pain to return anew and making him feel physically sick.

He raised his eyes finally, to meet The Man. It was a Raider. One of the same clan of those he had killed so long ago. He wanted to speak, but the inside of his mouth was caked in blood. Instead, the Raider smiled, "I want you to see your death." He produced a syringe, not a hypospray, full of a yellowy, glutinous liquid, "I hear that this poison is quite painful, and includes hallucinations. I'm not too sure about the details. Oh, and it must be injected into the roof of you mouth."

Malcolm looked into the eyes of the Raider, who looked back, and then grinned a yellow smile of satisfaction, "A life for a life, with penance for the murder."

Malcolm's breathing became more and more panicked, but he was too weak to fight. A cold metal object was forced into his mouth, and his head was forced back. His heart thumped in his chest, and then the tiny needle was driven in. He felt the liquid being pushed into his system, which made him gag in reflex, and then the needle was gone. A small crack of glass could be heard, and voices. A cool hand rested on his cheek, but Malcolm's eyes looked down. The Raider lay on the floor, choking on his own blood as he bled out from his cut throat. Next to him was a half empty syringe, leaking out onto the floor, which was next to a pair of boots. Malcolm frowned, whose boots were they? He felt his head being raised, and he looked into the face of another man. He was saying something, but Malcolm couldn't understand; the other colours and sounds were getting too much.

* * *

Trip tried not to look at the blood as he gently shook his friend, "Mal? _Malcolm!_ Please answer me!" He carefully removed the metal device keeping Malcolm's mouth open, and grabbed a bloody knife off the floor, not wanting to imagine its purpose in the room. He reached up, and cut the ties securing Malcolm's wrists. He felt someone next to him, helping; Jon. Trip didn't want to let go as they lowered their friend to the floor. He looked even smaller, covered in all the blood. Both men felt sick. They had seen torture victims, but never anything as bad as this.

Both were shaken out of their trance as Katrina roughly kicked the body out of her way. As soon as she had picked up that knife, she had turned feral. She had cut every throat of every Raider they had come across before they even saw her. She had moved so fast, all the other two had been able to do was keep up. She grabbed the scanner from the floor where Trip had dropped it, and didn't even flinch when she looked at Malcolm. At first Jon thought she was cold and unfeeling, and then he saw her eyes, which were full of sorrow and hate. Unlike them, she had seen this kind of torture.

Katrina emptied out the components of the scanner, and scooped up the remnants of the syringe and liquid into the casing, "He must have half of it in his system. We've got to get him to Alex. _Now!_"

Her words spurred the other two into action. They gently, but quickly picked him up, and began to carry him out the door, through the ship, Katrina leading the way. They had gone what must have been halfway when, suddenly, what had been a completely limp body came alive in their arms, thrashing and screaming. They were forced to put him down. Malcolm was crying out in unintelligible words, and it was all Trip could do but hold him. "Come on!" Katrina yelled, fear leaking into her voice.

"We can't carry him like this!" Archer yelled back, his anger getting the better of him, "We'll hurt him even more!"

While this exchange went on, Malcolm suddenly froze in Trip's arms, shaking, but silent. He was looking at something from the direction they had come. Frowning Trip twisted, to see Echo standing in the middle or the corridor, silent, head cocked to one side. The other two had noticed her too. For a second, Katrina wavered in her belief of it all being the girl's fault; she looked scared. And then, in the corner of her eye, she saw Malcolm curl up further, pressing himself into Trip. He whispered, "_Switch_."

Everything clicked into place for Katrina. That's how it had been done. She raised her gun, the girl's eyes widened, but too late, as she, or he, depending on who it had been originally, fell to the floor, with a smouldering hole in their chest. Malcolm quietened, and covered his ears.

Archer and Trip were in shock, but actually too scared to say anything. Her eyes said it all. This is how the universe is. Deal with it.

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: I don't claim ownership of Echo's species. I was watching a Voyager episode called 'Vis a Vis', and I thought that kind of alien would fit perfectly.

Anyway, that was that chapter! It's made this story a lot darker than I ever intended, but I couldn't stop writing! Please tell me what you thought!


	13. Coping Mechanism

Slight spoilers for the season 3 episode 'Chosen Realm'

Chapter 13: Coping Mechanism

A slight breeze played over his skin, causing his conscious mind to rise further into being. As Malcolm's alertness returned, all he was aware of was a completely new sensation. He couldn't ever recall feeling like this. He was content. And yet, as he contemplated opening his eyes, something played at the back of his mind, as if he should remember something, but couldn't.

Finally pulling himself out of his introvert state, Malcolm opened his eyes. He was lying in a soft bed that was situated in the middle of a creamy white room which opened out onto a balcony. He lay there for a while, taking in the silence and listening to the spring breeze swirl around the room languidly.

After a while, he sat up. Again, he felt the odd sensation against his skin. It was as if his brain was telling him that he shouldn't be able to feel the softness of the sheets; that he should be feeling something else. He was far weaker than he had expected, his wrists buckling slightly as he used them to prop himself up. Frowning, Malcolm pulled back the long white sleeve that swallowed half his hand. There was no mark on the skin of his wrist. That was odd. So why did he think he would see something? Lightly, he touched the inside of his wrist, and then pulled back, as if he had been burned. For a split second, he had been sure he had seen something, something bad, something he didn't want to think of ever again.

He sat there for a long while, until he heard the light creak of a door being opened. He lifted his head to see a woman, also dressed in white, enter carrying a tray bearing a pitcher of water and a glass. She smiled, "Good morning Malcolm, I expected you to wake up today. My name is Nai. I have been your doctor these past weeks."

Malcolm watched silently as she placed the tray on a table, and poured the water. "Sorry, but-" He stopped, surprised at how weak and croaky his voice was. She gave him the water, which he sipped before continuing, "Where am I?"

Nai smiled sadly, and sat on the end of his bed, "You are in one of the Sanctum's many monasteries. You were brought to us nigh on two weeks ago now. What do you remember, Malcolm?"

He shook his head, "Nothing."

"What is your last clear memory? Think now, I will not be angry with you whatever you say."

Malcolm frowned. What did he remember? "I don't know," he said slowly, "I know I have memories, but I can't think of one, not one in particular. Shouldn't that scare me?"

Nai smiled gently, "No Malcolm. You have been through a terrible ordeal, and although you physical scars have all been healed, your mind has yet to. It is simply trying to understand slowly."

Once again, Malcolm examined his wrist. He jerked back as his vision was suddenly swallowed by a horrible blackness, and a sensation of falling. Nai reached over and took his hand. "Do not force things. Although we are far more medically advanced due to our predecessors on this planet, we do not work miracles. You must sleep."

Somewhere in Malcolm's being, he felt that he should protest, that he should argue with the doctor, but he was too tired and his eyes slid shut.

* * *

Trip leaned against a tree, laughing as he watched Sara pull T'Pol into the lake with Ryan's help. It was a warm spring day, and the geothermal lakes surrounding the monastery were enticing to all. It had been autumn when they had been on this planet last, and now it seemed perfect, suiting its name. However much he tried, though, Trip could not truly enjoy himself. It had been two weeks since they had set foot on the planet. He could still remember that as they landed, Alex was reviving Malcolm's heart for a third time. He shivered, despite the warmth. After the initial hours during which Malcolm's blood had been completely filtered and purified, when he had finally been stabilised, it had been quickly decided that no one would leave until their friend woke up. 

A light brush on his arm brought Trip out of his thoughts. Katrina was standing next to him, "Come with me."

Without question, Trip followed her away from the crystal water of the lakes and up the dazzling white marble steps that led to the monastery itself. He followed her into the cooler temperature of the building, where Nai and Laura were waiting. Alarm bells started ringing in his head, "What's going on? What's wrong?"

Nai was quick to placate the man, "Nothing is wrong, Trip. Malcolm woke up this morning."

It took a few moments for the news to sink in, and then Trip let out a huge sigh of relief, slumping against the wall. After a couple of minutes, he gathered his thoughts together enough to ask questions, "How is he?"

"Physically, he has made a full recovery. However, I am slightly concerned at Malcolm's seeming inability to grasp what has happened to him."

Katrina frowned, "What do you mean?"

"He was not able to recall anything particular from his past. He knew general things, such as his name, but could not pinpoint anything. He was also confused - I think his lack of injuries disturbed him. Although he could not remember getting any, his subconscious mind could." She gave them a comforting smile, "However, this is only Malcolm's first day. From what you have told me of him, he is strong. I am confident of him making a full recovery."

Trip prompted her, "You said that him being a, what do you call it, 'Fall Through', might complicate matters?"

Laura nodded, "Malcolm has experienced two completely different lives. On many occasions, we receive an escaped or freed Fall Through at the Sanctum. Often, they have trouble adjusting."

"Can we see him?" Katrina asked.

Nai shook her head, "He is sleeping once more. Perhaps in a few days."

* * *

Over the next week, Malcolm gradually began to fall back into his old personality. Most noticeably, his sarcasm was one of the first things to return, especially when dealing with Nai's insistence of rest. His memories had all returned, and, although he was always careful to steer the conversations away from that day, he seemed to be coping with everything very well. He received frequent visitors, and as he became more mobile, an exasperated Nai was soon forced to release him just to get peace. 

It had been two weeks since Malcolm's awakening when Archer finally broached the subject of going home. Malcolm had barely reacted, although Trip had noticed a spark of fear in his eyes. It was all set up. Everything was packed, Jamie had made the final touches to the beacon, and the Eclipse's crew was once again split into two; the originals and the Enterprise's. As they stood on the monastery's steps, watching the sun rise and listening to the bells toll, Trip was the one to ask the inevitable question, "So, what will you do?"

Malcolm closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened them, they were full of an intense sorrow, "I can't. I'm so sorry, but I can't go back with you. I'm going to stay on the Eclipse."

No one reacted, all trying to accept his decision - all except Archer. Under original circumstances, he might have tried to understand, but after what Daniels had told him, he had to try, "Malcolm, I can't just leave you here. You belong with us."

Malcolm's eyes darkened with storm clouds, "No, I don't. I should have seen it, as soon as those Raiders sent the message, but I didn't. I didn't stop you, and look where it got me; got us. I can't live with your decisions."

Trip frowned, "Mal, what are you talking about? You couldn't have known."

Malcolm let out a sharp, humourless laugh, "Remember though religious zealots from the Expanse, the ones who tricked us, almost blew up the Enterprise and took it to war? I let that same thing happen again! I don't belong in your galaxy anymore; the old me would have noticed something."

"You don't know that Malcolm…"

"Yes I do."

Archer was worried now. Daniels had said Trip would have to persuade him, but Malcolm wasn't wavering. Pulling out one last ditch effort, he spoke, "Lieutenant Reed, you are still a member of Starfleet and a citizen of Earth. As such, I am ordering you to return with us."

At that point, Katrina almost leapt at Archer to tear his eyes out, and probably would have if Malcolm hadn't stopped her. He looked down coldly on his old captain, "Lieutenant Reed is dead, remember? You made sure of that when you signed the certificate three months in. Goodbye." With that, he turned, and silently walked back up the steps.

Jon flinched as if he had been physically struck. He cleared his throat in defeat, and after a moment, said, "We have to go now. Thank you all - for everything."

Three of the four made to leave, but Trip didn't move, "Wait, Cap'n? I want to talk to him. Please?"

Archer nodded his consent, "We'll meet you by the Linlr."

* * *

Malcolm sat on the window ledge of his room, letting the breeze touch his face, washing his emotions away. He smiled, "Hello Trip." 

Trip jumped; Malcolm had given no indication that he knew he was there. "You lied back there."

Malcolm didn't turn around; instead he continued to look out over the lakes towards the sunrise. "No I didn't. What I said back there was the truth."

"But not all of it."

Malcolm smiled weakly, "I've figured it out."

Trip frowned, "What are you talking about?"

"This galaxy, and yours, I've figured it out." He turned to face Trip, and his friend was shocked to see the raw emotion in his eyes, "If I go back with you, I'll lose it. I'll lose my grip on reality. If I stay here, it doesn't matter as much."

"Mal, I'm really not following you."

"This galaxy. Everyone here deals with so much crap everyday that things like what I've gone though don't carry as much weight; they get pushed to the side. It's a coping mechanism that allows us to survive. If I went back with you, there is no way I'd be able to deal with life in Starfleet, or on Earth."

Trip bowed his head. He couldn't argue with his friend. When he raised his head, he was smiling, "I'll be seeing you around then, yeah?"

Malcolm smiled in return, "Thanks Trip."

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: Nope, that is definitely not the end! You won't get rid of me that easily. Please let me know what you thought of this chapter.


	14. Hard Reality

Author Notes: Thanks for the lovely reviews!

Chapter 14: Hard Reality 

David was slammed hard into the wall, a knife pressed against his throat, "Don't _ever_ pull something like that again! You're on this mission, so you'd better damn well stick with it!" David's breath sharpened as the metal nicked his skin before it was withdrawn. The man stared at him coldly, "We expect all ships to co-ordinate, or we can't pull this off. If you can't deal with it, then you'd better find another job."

"Sorry." He managed to squeak out. The man gave him a look of disgust, and stormed out of the mess hall.

Jamie exchanged a look with Katrina as the skinny human scuttled back to his crewmates. Her expression mirrored his. Silently, it was agreed that she should stay behind to calm down their men, while he went to deal with it.

Jamie rose, drained his mug, and followed his friend's path out of the mess and down the halls. Everything had changed so much since the Raider incident, and the Enterprise crew's departure. Even now, Jamie was not sure how it had all come about, but the crew of the Eclipse now led a resistance movement against the Pensari and the Covenant. Over time, they had attracted other human and Fall Through race ships to their cause. To say that they were a pain in the backside for the Pensari would have been a vast understatement. Rewards verging into the millions were being offered for the heads of the ring leaders, the location of their base of operations, and signature codes for the allied ships. Jamie shook his head. They should never have got into something as big as this, but Malcolm had been adamant, and Katrina had trusted him implicitly.

They had all just returned from the biggest raid they had ever attempted – they had blown up an Oribium refinery moon, the closet to the governmental planets. They had lost three ships, forty three rebels. He couldn't blame Malcolm for being upset with David; the stupid little idiot had broken formation, causing the line of ships to become disjointed, and allowing the Covenant ships to get a look in. Nevertheless, his friend's reaction had been drastic, and completely out of character. No, Jamie corrected himself; it had been completely out of character for the Malcolm he had known before. Using his accession codes, Jamie walked into the makeshift War Room, where he knew Malcolm would be, "Mal?"

"What?" Jamie inwardly flinched at the tone.

"What was that back there? David's new; you should cut him some slack."

Malcolm stood up from where he was sitting in front of a screen, "He caused a breakdown. We were lucky – we managed to complete the mission, with minimum loss of life and resources. He's incompetent."

Jamie frowned, "Listen to yourself Malcolm. We're all worried about you. What's happening to you? Mission? Resources? You sound like all you see is the numbers."

Malcolm glared at Jamie coldly, "If we're to do this, we have to be efficient. I'm fine Jamie. You should be getting back to work. The Eclipse's engines took some damage."

"Not until you talk to me. I don't know this you. You're not the person I knew, you're not the person Katrina knew, and you're definitely not the person Trip knew." Malcolm flinched at the last name, "Where has this you come from, Mal? You've thrown yourself into this as if it's all you have. You act like a Covenant general, not a Fall Through from Earth." This was quite a long speech for the normally reserved engineer, but he refused to back down under Malcolm's piercing glare.

Malcolm was the first to break eye contact, "This is all I have, Jamie. I can't-" He stopped.

"What?"

"Nothing." Before Jamie could press the matter any further, Malcolm pushed past him, walking swiftly down the hall.

The engineer groaned, "Well that went well." He muttered to himself.

* * *

Ryan leaned against the wall of the mess, watching a group of humans – fighter pilots if his memory served – rifling through newspapers. It had become the norm for bets to be pooled for what ships or captains got mentioned in the articles. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Katrina and Jamie having a heated discussion. Probably about Malcolm, he mused; ever since the refinery aftermath incident three weeks ago, he hadn't seen either of them carry a smile. He absently turned his attention back to the pilots. Those two weren't the only ones who were worried. He and Alex had spent all the previous night trying to explain to the ever perceptive Sara why Malcolm hadn't come to see her recently. The whole thing was getting beyond even Katrina's control.

Two nights ago, Malcolm had taken a contingent of hand picked humans off on an unauthorised mission. They had returned an hour ago; half the number they left with and covered in blood. None of them had thought it necessary to divulge any information concerning to where they had been. Ryan had already seen one of the papers the pilots were looking at. Five key officials from the central core of the Covenant had been found dead in their homes. Bodyguards had all died or disappeared mysteriously. No prizes as to guessing what had happened.

Losing interest in the pilots, Ryan quietly moved over to the doorway, where Jamie and Katrina were standing. They were too absorbed to notice him: "-and I don't see any other option. It might do him good."

Jamie scrubbed his face, "Or he might pitch a fit and go rogue. Then where would we be?"

"It'll only be for a few days. Most people will never know we're gone. I think he needs this. We're losing him Jamie; this invitation might be just what we've been needing."

Ryan chose that moment to jump in, "What invitation?"

Katrina sighed, knowing she couldn't keep anything from the young man, "Me and Mal are going away for a few days, to visit some old friends who are staying in the Sanctum's solar system."

"Laura and Nai?"

Katrina smiled, "Not quite." She rested a hand on Ryan's shoulder, "You guys had better keep this all running while we're gone."

Ryan wanted to say more, but thought better of it, "Sure boss. See you in a few days."

* * *

It had taken every trick in the book to get Malcolm on the Eclipse with her. She had thought it best to leave immediately, so he was just as dishevelled and blood stained as when he had returned to the base. He had barely spoken to her during the trip, only relaying essential information. With one final jerk of the controls, the Eclipse exited into the Sanctum's solar system. In a tight voice, Malcolm asked, "Do you want me to input to co-ordinates for our landing?"

"No. We won't be landing. Scan the area surrounding the second moon of the gas giant."

Malcolm frowned, but complied, "Scans are picking up a ship-" his throat constricted, unable to continue his sentence.

Katrina smiled, "The Hephaestus."

Malcolm found his voice, "_This_ is why we are here? You're pathetic Katrina! You can't live in the past, and if you think I'm going on that ship with you, you're very much mistaken."

Katrina completed the docking sequence after sending a message, before standing to face Malcolm, "I've put up with a lot of shit from you recently Malcolm, and only because you're my friend. You _will _come with me on this ship if I have to knock you out and drag you on it."

Malcolm didn't reply, he only glared.

Katrina strode out of the Eclipse into the Hephaestus' hanger bay, keeping a firm grip on Malcolm's arm. Waiting for them was the Captain of the vessel, Vorik and Ecklaqa, the Ri'kyan doctor of the ship. Malcolm froze when he saw the latter, "What the hell is this? A doctor? You've gone too far Katrina! I'm fine; you just need to accept that this is me now!" He wrenched out of her grip, and made to go back, but the Ri'kyan was too quick for him. She grabbed his wrist to try and make him listen.

The unwanted and alien contact was enough to set Malcolm off. He whirled around, tried to floor the bug-like alien, but before he could complete the manoeuvre, he heard a sharp hiss, and felt a small prick in his arm. Immediately, he lost his balance as the drug took effect. His vision greyed, and the last thing he heard, was Katrina saying, "I'm so sorry Malcolm."

* * *

Katrina sat on a biobed, watching the sleeping form of her friend through the glass wall that separated the two rooms. Vorik sat next to her. She sighed, "I wish it hadn't come to this."

Vorik glanced at his old pilot, "From everything you have told me, I think we can assume that without our help, Malcolm would have eventually burned up, and you would have lost him forever. Human emotions are tricky things. It is my belief that he has fallen back into some way of life to stop his pain."

Katrina shook her head, "But that doesn't make any sense. Malcolm was nothing like this when I first met him."

"But what do you know of his life in his old galaxy?"

"He had some cushy job on the Enterprise, a human exploration ship."

"And before that?" Katrina couldn't answer him. "Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps there are darker things in his galaxy than you have presumed?"

The Vulcan gave his version of a sympathetic smile, and left Katrina to her thoughts. It was not long before Malcolm woke up, "Let me go Katrina! You can't force me to talk to some shrink. You can't lock me up like this!"

Katrina reigned her emotions in, and tried to sound indifferent, "Ecklaqa is of the belief that you could channel your anger and hurt into something more… self destructive. We can't let you out Mal. I sorry, but this is for your own good."

Malcolm snorted, and began prowling the room like a caged animal. It was like he was on drugs. Katrina pushed that thought firmly out of her mind. Whatever Malcolm did, he would never go that far, of that she was certain.

* * *

It was the second night into their stay on the Hephaestus. Katrina was dozing on her biobed, having refused to take quarters of her own. As her thoughts wondered aimlessly, a small noise jolted her back to reality. Opening her eyes, she frowned, and then looked over at Malcolm. Sure enough, he was caught in the throes of what seemed to be a particularly violent nightmare. He was crying out in English, which was why it hadn't fully registered in her mind the first time; she hadn't heard the language spoken in ages. Getting up, she opened the door into Malcolm's room without a second thought and ran over to try and wake him up, "Malcolm! Listen to me! It's Katrina, you're safe."

Malcolm didn't wake up. He kept muttering something, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry-"

"Malcolm!" Her sharp tone brought him out of it with a jerk, causing him to fall to the floor. As soon as he realised where he was, he forcibly controlled his breathing and arranged his face into something that might have been a glare.

Katrina folded her arms. "Door's got an automatic lock, so I guess we're stuck here until Ecklaqa gets here in the morning. Wanna talk about what just happened?"

"Sod off."

Katrina raised an eyebrow, "Charming. So, what are you sorry about?"

Malcolm's head snapped up at that, "_What?_"

"Well, you kept saying it, so I figure it must mean something."

"Leave me alone Katrina."

"How long have you been having nightmares?"

"I said leave me alone!" Malcolm's voice rose in volume as he took a step forwards.

Katrina didn't move as she stared right back. They stood there for what seemed like hours, both trying to make the other back down. Finally, Katrina spoke, "We've been through hell and high water together, Mal, and I will _not_ let this be the thing to get you. Whether you like it or not, I'm here to stay. You gave up the right to get rid of me the moment you took that beating for me back in the mines."

Malcolm looked slightly thrown, but soon mustered a reply, "You don't know me. You don't know what I was! I took orders without question and killed countless people just to get the job done! I did what everyone else likes to ignore even exists on Earth. You're just scared that I will do what the resistance needs to do. You will never understand me!"

Katrina's face flitted with confusion. So Vorik was right; Earth did come into it somewhere. "What's your point?"

"Why won't you just leave me alone!" Behind the stony face, there was a slight plea in his voice.

"Why? So you can self-destruct? So you can truly stop caring, feeling? Never gonna happen Mal. I will not let you become one of them – Raider or Covenant."

"You don't, you can't-"

"What? Don't tell me what I can't or won't do Mal!" She lowered her voice to the softest audible level she could, "Let me in Malcolm."

Malcolm took a step back and lost his footing, sliding to the floor, "I can't…" That was it. The façade broke and the tears built up over all the years since the Orions flowed.

Katrina sat down next to her friend, and put an arm around him. They sat like that until they both fell asleep.

* * *

Malcolm and Katrina had fallen in a comfortable silence. They had no need to talk about that night. The point was that they had both come out of the past two years and a half free and together. Scars of all kinds healed in time, you just had to be patient. Katrina smiled softly as she watched Malcolm talk with Soreq, Vorik's son. The half human, half Vulcan boy had turned out to be very interesting. He displayed as few emotions as his father, and yet he was incredibly empathic to the feelings of other people. As such, he was often around his two old protectors. 

She watched Malcolm listen intently to the boy. You could tell he had been through an ordeal. He was even thinner than he usually was, and dark shadows marred his face. His eyes were still quite dull; missing some of their spark. Nevertheless, Katrina could see her old friend beginning to shine through.

She looked up as Vorik entered the room, "Son, I believe you are late for your piloting lesson. Please report to the simulation room."

The boy looked mildly annoyed, but obeyed. Katrina quirked an eyebrow, "You know, you don't need to get rid of him. We know we've probably outstayed our welcome. We'll go without a fuss."

Malcolm smiled, "What she means to say is, everything you've done for us, there's really no way we can thank you enough."

Vorik sat down opposite, "Actually, there is."

Malcolm and Katrina exchanged worried looks, "Go on."

"I have been following your progress ever since you left this ship the first time. It intrigued me to find out of your new status as rebel leaders. However, it has perhaps not come to your knowledge how much you have truly, shall we say, _upset_ the Pensari. They have decided to deal with the root of the Fall Through problem at the source."

Malcolm frowned, "I don't understand."

Katrina mirrored her friend's expression, and then it clicked, "They're not serious? That's impossible!"

"What is?"

Vorik leaned forwards, a real expression of worry on his face, "The Pensari have issued a conscription notice to all loyal Covenant citizens and their slaves. They are going to launch a full scale invasion into our races' galaxy through the wormhole. I believe it is their intention to recruit the Orions, and then take everyone by surprise. The Pensari are a bigger force than you give them credit for."

Malcolm paled, "And by dealing with the source, you mean..?"

"Enslaving the home planets of the Fall Through species."

Katrina leaned back in her chair in shock. Malcolm stood, "I have to go through the Linlr. They need some warning!"

Katrina shook her head in thought, "You have no way of signalling a ship. It took Jamie weeks to make that beacon to Trip's specifics. Besides, if the attack force is that large, there's not enough time to set up a perimeter in defence."

"Then what?"

Katrina looked expectantly at Vorik, "Well?"

"The first wave is set to go in four days. The wormhole must be destroyed."

Both humans stared. Malcolm blinked, "Come again?" he asked weakly.

Katrina looked deep into the Vulcan's eyes, "You can't risk your crew, can you? You're in one of the waves. That's how you know."

"Yes, a Pensari pilot crew arrive tomorrow."

For a moment, both humans looked lost, and then Katrina's lips curled into a smile, "To quote Trip: cool."

Malcolm frowned, "Katrina…"

"Four days Mal. So let's go."

To Be Continued…


	15. Endgame

Author Notes: Slightly worse language.

Chapter 15: Endgame

Alex fitted the small device with a chip of sorts. "Tilt you head slightly to the right please." She instructed Malcolm. He complied, and the chip was implanted into his system.

He sighed, rubbing his neck, "This is a bad plan."

Alex nodded, "I know, but it's all we've got. That chip is set on a timer. In four hours, it will release the drug that will counteract the anaesthetic. We should get going. We're on a schedule, remember?"

Malcolm nodded, and led the way towards the hanger bays. The whole base was a hive of activity. He and Katrina had only arrived back the previous night after their discussion with Vorik earlier that day. The plan was for all ships to approach the wormhole and processing stations. They would create a distraction for Katrina, who would be piloting the Eclipse. In the confusion, she would pilot the wormhole and, when she reached the other side, would activate the cloak which couldn't be in use during the transit.

Malcolm had been furious with the idea. The plan involved the rest of the Eclipse's crew to be under anaesthetic, but as no Pensari would ever join their cause, they had to use a human pilot. The risks were huge, and Katrina was in danger of receiving brain damage at the very least – if she managed to pilot the wormhole at all. But as she had pointed out, none of them knew how to destroy a wormhole, but the chances were that someone with a large brain on the Enterprise might have more luck. Malcolm's chip was designed to wake him up so that he could pilot and find his old ship using a warp tracking system Jamie and Trip had made as a possible way of finding the Enterprise. In truth, the engineer had just been humouring Trip, but now they needed the device.

Malcolm took one last look around the hanger bay, and then followed Alex into the Eclipse and up to their quarters where everyone else was waiting; including Sara, "What are you doing here? This mission is too dangerous-" Alex began.

Sara stubbornly folded her arms, "If you do this, there's no coming back; I ain't using the Linlr to get grabbed by a bunch of Klingons. I'm going."

Alex made to protest further, but Katrina stopped her, "We don't have time for this. Give everyone the drug."

Everyone moved into their quarters to lie down. While Alex dealt with the rest of the crew, Malcolm turned to Katrina to say something, but she stopped him, "Don't."

Malcolm nodded reluctantly, and moved into his quarters to allow Alex to administer the anaesthetic before Katrina did her. The drug took effect almost immediately.

* * *

"Screw, screw, screw, screw-" Katrina muttered as yet another missile shot past her ship, missing by inches. 

She had yet to see the wormhole – the massive explosions were sort of occupying her attention. The distraction was working, no doubt, and with her cloak, no one saw her. This was of course a very big problem if you were in between a Covenant war ship and a rebel fighter. She wrenched the controls up, causing the Eclipse to shoot over the largest ship she had ever seen. And then she saw it. Despite herself, she had to gasp, "Wow."

The wormhole looked similar to a whirlpool, but with a myriad of colours all merging together in ripples. Light seemed to be both sucked into it and spat out simultaneously. She proceeded at full impulse head on and then, just before she engaged the propulsion on the wormhole's horizon, she disconnected the cloak.

Her eyes were bombarded with light so intense, it seemed to burn into her brain. Screwing her eyes up, Katrina tried to focus on a path, and only just managed to change course as she almost slammed into the wall of the tunnel-like structure. Her brain was overloading with information, and her reflexes were only a split second ahead of the ship's movement. She felt completely out of control. Blinking hard, she could feel the light inside her brain, as if it was trying to turn her head inside out. Vaguely, she was aware of a warm sensation trickling down her face from her nose and ears.

Then it was over. The Eclipse shot out into real space. Shaking, with her vision dimming, Katrina slid forwards and engaged the cloak before she was lost to darkness.

* * *

Malcolm shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts as he came around. He undid the straps that had held his body to the bed during transit, and surveyed the scene. Everything was everywhere. "Bloody hell." He rose, and quickly made his way down to the cockpit, "Katrina?" 

He found his friend slumped in the pilot's chair. There was blood all over her face and matted into her hair. Frantically, Malcolm searched for a pulse, breathing a sigh of relief when he found one, albeit weak and fast. Gently, he picked up his captain's limp body, and took her to the living quarters. Although he wanted to wake Alex up, he knew time was of the essence, so he ran back to the cockpit and strapped in.

For the first time, he saw the view out of the window. Orion and Covenant ships milled around, but there seemed to be no definite guard set up. Without any further thought, Malcolm simultaneously disengaged the cloak and entered Jumpstream. He was never the pilot that Katrina was, but he had absorbed her lessons. Flicking the controls, he exited the stream and activated the tracking device. Nothing. He hadn't expected anything first try, but this galaxy was big and they didn't have much time. Katrina needed a doctor, and in two days an armada was going to come through that wormhole. Keeping the device active, Malcolm engaged the drive once more, and began flitting from wave to wave, desperately searching for a signal.

An hour into his search, just as his reflexes were starting to flag, the consoles started beeping to indicate a match on a warp signature in normal space. Immediately, Malcolm pulled the ship out of Jump, and laughed out loud as he saw the ship he hadn't seen in two and a half years.

* * *

"Commander," The ensign at the science post called out to Commander Tucker who was on bridge duty at the time, "Scans have just detected a ship exiting…something." 

Trip raised an eyebrow, "'_Something_'?"

"I don't know sir. It seems to be some kind of alternative way of travelling, but it's nothing like warp."

Trip frowned, "Show me."

The ensign flicked the image onto the main screen. "No way!" Trip couldn't help himself. The last thing he'd been expecting was the Eclipse.

"Sir?" Everyone on the bridge was looking at him strangely.

"We're receiving a hail." Hoshi called out.

"Open a channel."

Malcolm's face came on screen, causing everyone on the bridge to stare in shock. His presence in the other galaxy had been omitted from the official report; Captain Archer hadn't wanted to bring up old history. Trip frowned. Something was wrong. That Malcolm was piloting was alone a bad thing, but the exhausted look on his face and the slight blood smears on his hands just made Trip even more worried. "Malcolm?"

"Please. Permission to dock with Enterprise. Katrina needs immediate medical attention, and the others are all unconscious."

Trip didn't question him. "Permission granted." The channel cut. "Contact the Captain and tell him. Also have a medical team down there. Richmond, you have the bridge."

"Aye, sir." Hoshi murmured weakly as Trip practically ran to the turbolift.

* * *

By the time Trip made it, the crew of the Eclipse were already being loaded onto gurneys. Archer and T'Pol were going to meet him in sickbay, but Trip had had to come and find his friend first. It took him only a second to find Malcolm. He was leaning against a bulkhead looking entirely lost as he watched his friends get wheeled away. Trip looked his friend over critically. He looked awful, even worse than he had when he had last seen him. He had his arms wrapped around himself again, and his eyes were far away. He was scrubbing absently at the dried blood on his hands, "Malcolm?" 

The ex-Lieutenant jumped slightly, before looking at Trip. His eyes said it all. Trip couldn't think of doing anything else. Throwing away any thought that he was on the Enterprise, Trip walked over to his friend and hugged him. The old Malcolm would have pulled away immediately, but this one just sank into the human contact. "Welcome back, Mal. Welcome home."

* * *

Phlox walked out to a small gaggle of people in his sickbay. It was clear that his Captain had wanted to keep things quiet, but on a ship such as this one, that goal had been impossible. Hoshi and Travis had joined Archer, Trip and T'Pol. In addition, quite a few members of the armoury had come down with mysterious ailments in a very short space of time. "Well?" The Captain was the first to speak. 

"All but the captain – I believe you called her Katrina? – are fine. Lieutenant Reed is suffering from exhaustion, but is refusing treatment, and with the remainder of the crew, all it took was to find an antidote of their mild anaesthetic."

"Thank you doctor, anything else?"

"Yes." Malcolm appeared from behind the Denobulan.

The doctor looked annoyed with his patient, "What part of 'rest' do you not understand?"

"You think we came here for a social visit? Katrina didn't risk her life to see what it would be like to pilot a wormhole you know!" Malcolm spat.

"Mal…" Trip said warningly, "Why don't you explain."

"The Covenant are coming." He answered simply.

Archer's head snapped up, "What?"

"They've got so pissed off with Fall Throughs that they've decided that their home planets need to be dealt with. They want to enslave this galaxy. They arrive in just under two days."

Everyone blanched. "Travis, how far are we from the Borderlands? Can we make it?"

"We'd have to push engines to the full, sir. Well beyond the safety margins. If we did that, we might just beat them."

"Set a course. Everyone get to their posts. Send out a message on all frequencies and languages telling everyone what's coming. Hopefully someone will answer. Trip, get to Engineering."

"Wait Captain." Malcolm caused him to pause. "A friend of ours, he's the one who gave us this information, he told us that there's no stopping this force by arms."

"Then what are we supposed to do?"

"We have to destroy the wormhole."

Archer looked momentarily shocked, and then nodded, "Trip, T'Pol, work on it with the Eclipse's crew."

* * *

Malcolm sat with Katrina in sick bay. Phlox had given her a course of treatment, which she was grudgingly taking. Her final diagnosis had been that, although she had received no immediate brain damage from her experiences, there was a high probability that she would be affected in later life. "So, how are Trip and Jamie getting along?" 

Malcolm shifted uncomfortably, "Nothing yet."

Katrina's eyes narrowed, "Malcolm…"

Her friend tried to look innocent, but gave in, "They believe that if they overloaded the Eclipse's Jumpdrive on the event horizon, the Oribium would create an explosion with enough force to destabilise the wormhole and cause it to collapse."

"They want to blow up my ship!"

"Calm down! They're still looking at other options."

"Mal, I'm not dumb. We get there in three hours and it's all you guys have got."

Malcolm looked away. Katrina, meanwhile, swung her feet around and jumped to the floor, "What are you doing?"

Katrina fixed him with a piercing glare, "If anyone is going to blow up that ship, it will be me. You can't do something like that on auto pilot. It's a suicide mission."

"No, you don't understand, we just don't want to blow up a Jumpdrive." Katrina looked blank, "Uh, well, remember you talking about a magical teleportation device? We, sort of, might, have one on this ship?"

"You're kidding." Katrina grinned, and then forcibly turned Malcolm around, "Wait a sec while I get dressed."

Malcolm folded his arms, but didn't turn around, "You can barely stand." He winced as a muffled thump came from behind him, "My point exactly."

"Oh, shut up." Five minutes later, Katrina was dragging Malcolm out of sick bay without so much as a word to the doctor.

* * *

"These devices will allow the transporter to lock onto your position through the Oribium in the hull. One per lifesign" Trip handed her two small black pieces of metal. 

"Two?"

"Like you said Katrina, I can't get rid of you, and you can't get rid of me."

Katrina looked like she was going to argue, but then handed Malcolm one of the devices, "Yay! We both get to have our bodies broken down into particles!"

T'Pol opened her mouth, but Katrina stopped her, "You go into one more spiel about wormhole theory, and I _swear_…"

Malcolm smiled, "We should get going. And you should probably prepare. To be in transporter range, you'll make great target practice for the Orions."

"Good luck." Trip nodded.

Before anything could get awkward, Katrina took Malcolm's wrist, and guided him to the Eclipse. As they detached from the Enterprise and activated the cloak, Katrina twisted around to regard Malcolm, "You should get down to the engine room. Got your magic box?" Malcolm rolled his eyes, and made to leave, but Katrina's voice continued, "We can do this, right?" There was a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

Malcolm smiled, "Sure."

* * *

Katrina winched as she saw the Enterprise take another hit. Getting close to the wormhole had become a problem due to some preliminary scouts coming through in the form of fighters. "Mal? How's it going down there?" 

Malcolm's voice came back, fraught with static, but she got the gist; not good.

"What the..?" Sensors started bleeping, and then four ships exited warp. From the communications she was monitoring, Katrina grinned, "We've got three Andorian ships and a Vulcan ship come to join the party, Mal!"

The new arrivals brought enough of a distraction to the fight for some enemy ships to move away from the wormhole, giving Katrina an opening. She manoeuvred her ship until it was millimetres away from touching the event horizon. Footsteps behind her indicated that Malcolm had set the drive to overload and had come up to join her. Suddenly, the whole ship tipped violently to one side, "Shit! What was that?"

Malcolm groaned, and picked himself up from the floor, "We must be showing up in the wormhole's light. They're firing on us."

"Yeah? Well let's not stick around long enough to find out."

Katrina got up, and ran over to Malcolm, pulling her device out of her pocket. Malcolm's face suddenly drained of all colour, "I think I dropped mine when we were hit just then!"

He whirled around, scanning the floor, but even if it had been in full view, it was perfectly camouflaged. Katrina shrugged, "We can both use mine."

Malcolm shook his head, pushing Katrina's hands back, "They transport one. You go, I'll find mine."

Katrina blinked. The sirens that reverberated around the ship indicated that the drive was moments from overloaded. Panic flowed into her voice, "Fuck that Malcolm!"

"Katrina, go!" The sirens stopped, and the ship shook. Malcolm pushed her away.

Katrina shook her head, "You saved my life in the mines. And you did change things."

"What?"

He didn't get to consider the odd comment, as Katrina landed a harsh kick to the side of his head. He slumped to the floor, unconscious. Activating the device, Katrina curled Malcolm's hand around in and watched as he disappeared, "A life for a life."

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: Please give me your opinions! There will be one last chapter after this just to tie everything up.


	16. Autumn Colours

Chapter 16: Autumn Colours

"I thought I'd find you here." Trip came up behind his friend, and sat down next to him against the tree.

"Lucky guess."

"Actually, your sister pointed me in the right direction." Trip grinned.

Malcolm gave a half smile, "Traitor." He absently picked up one of the many leaves that littered the woodland floor, and twirled it between his fingered, momentarily entranced as the yellows and reds merged together as they span.

It was a year to the day since Katrina's death, and Trip had managed to persuade Malcolm to take some time off while Enterprise was still in Jupiter Station for repairs. He had taken him to England, where they were staying with Malcolm's sister and her husband. Of the two options for family support, Trip figured her a better bet than his parents. The pair would be returning to San Francisco the next day to help with prepping the Enterprise on which both of them once again served. Richmond had already been filing for a transfer to a new colonial research station even before Malcolm had returned, and Archer had offered him his old position unconditionally.

Trip wrapped his jacket around him as the wind got up, causing the dead leaves to skip up into the air in small tornado-like spirals. So many things had changed since the crew of the Eclipse had stopped the invasion. Their lives, for one, had undergone a huge upheaval. Last he had heard from Jamie and Alex, they had settled down in Melbourne, Australia. Alex was now a practicing doctor, and Jamie was a ground engineer. Only a week earlier, they had met up with Sara, who was living in a shared apartment with Ryan and some other kids in San Francisco. She had an aptitude for languages, and was attending school there, while Ryan was attending the academy, training with the hope to go into munitions.

They sat together for a while, watching as the weak sunlight played over the ground and trees. Before long, it turned to a deep orange hue, bathing the whole clearing in a beautiful tint that made time seem to stop still. "I can see why you like it here." Malcolm smiled, but didn't reply. "So, you ready to return to life in space?"

His friend seemed to genuinely consider the idea, which gave Trip a split second of panic, before he answered, "Yes. Just give me a moment, will you?"

Trip nodded, and made his way back through the wood in the direction where he knew he would find the gravel path. Malcolm rose, and stood in the middle of the clearing. He pulled a small object out of his pocket. It was a jagged shard of an Oribium crystal, the last sample of the spare crystals that Jamie had retrieved before the Eclipse had gone on its last mission. He had stolen it from a Starfleet lab; his last act as the Malcolm of the other galaxy. Weighing the shard in his palm, Malcolm watched as the light reflected in patterns off its surface. "Thank you." He murmured.

Malcolm raised his arm, and threw the shard as far as he could through the branches of the trees. With a slight smile, he turned and walked towards the path where he knew Trip would be waiting.

**FIN**

Author Notes: That's it. It took me long enough, I know. I've really enjoyed writing this story. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read it. I would love to know what your final opinions are.


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